Oil rises 7% and world shares fall after Trump says US will hit Iran hard and ‘finish the job’

Persons walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Tokyo.

Oil rises 7% and world shares fall after Trump says US will hit Iran hard and ‘finish the job’

HONG KONG — After President Donald Trump announced in his first national address since the Iran conflict began that the U.S. will keep hitting Iran very hard, oil prices went up more than 7% and international shares went down.

Trump also suggested in his speech on Wednesday night that the U.S. will "finish the job" in Iran shortly because "core strategic objectives are nearing completion" and military operations might end soon.

"We're going to hit them very hard in the next two to three weeks." Trump declared in his speech, "We're going to take them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong."

Trump didn't say anything about a deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, which is the main route for transporting oil and gas around the world. He had already warned Iran with U.S. assaults on its energy infrastructure if the strait wasn't reopened. He didn't give a clear way to fix the supply problems that have caused energy prices to go up.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2% to 10,342.28 in the first half of European trading. The CAC 40 in France fell 0.8% to 7,917.81, and the DAX in Germany fell 1.6% to 22,935.01.

Asian stocks ended the day down. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 2.4% to 52,463.27 on Thursday. The Kospi in South Korea fell 4.5% to 5,234.05. This was also after official statistics revealed that consumer prices jumped 2.2% in March compared to a year earlier due to rising fuel expenses.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 0.7% to 25,116.53, and the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.7% to 3,919.29.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 1.1%, and the Taiex in Taiwan fell 1.8%.

Futures for the U.S. were down. The future for the S&P 500 fell by 1.1%, and the future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.9%.

After Trump's comments, oil prices went up a lot. Brent crude, which is the international standard, rose 7.4% to $108.69 per barrel. The price of benchmark U.S. crude increased 7.1% to $107.24 a barrel.

Takashi Hiroki, head of strategy at Monex in Tokyo, said, "The market is disappointed because President Trump's speech was much less than what the market expected." "There were no clear plans for how the fighting with Iran would end."

"People in the market want a clear plan for the ceasefire," he said.

The prices of gold and silver went down. Gold's price dropped 3.4% to $4,648.20 per ounce, which is less than $4,700. Silver fell 6.2% to $71.39 per ounce.

After Trump indicated late Tuesday that the U.S. military could complete its offensive in two to three weeks, globe stocks went up on Wednesday because people were hopeful that the Iran conflict will end soon.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 6,575.32 on Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite surged 1.2% to 21,840.95, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 46,565.74.

The U.S. dollar increased from 158.82 yen to 159.59 yen in other trades on Thursday morning. The euro was worth $1.1530, which is less than $1.1589.