Oil prices jump and Asian shares slip as US and Iran carry out airstrikes

BANGKOK, July 13, (AP): Oil prices jumped and Asian shares were mostly lower Monday after the US carried out airstrikes and Iran retaliated. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, gained 3.6% to $78.76 per barrel, while US benchmark crude added 3.5% to $73.97 per barrel.

Prices for both types of crude oil recently had slipped back to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran began after the two sides set an interim agreement on ending the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran into Monday morning over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the strait that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East.

US stock futures fell, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.4% and that for the Dow nearly unchanged. The Nasdaq composite future lost 1.2%. In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.9% to 67,242.73, while in Seoul, the Kospi declined 9% to 6,806.93. It's now at its lowest level since April.

Shares in South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which soared 13% in their debut Friday on Wall Street, slumped 15.4% in Seoul. Its bigger rival Samsung Electronics sank 10.7%. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.2% higher, to 24,212.36, and the Shanghai Composite index shed 2.1% to 3,913.79.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,808.50. U.S. stocks ticked higher Friday after investors showed sustained appetite for winners of the artificial-intelligence boom.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%. SK Hynix's shares jumped immediately after trading began in the midday hours after it raised roughly $26.5 billion by selling American depositary shares at a price of $149 each.