{"id":30534,"date":"2026-04-01T11:54:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30534"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:54:43","slug":"world-markets-rocket-higher-on-optimism-iran-war-could-end-soon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/world-markets-rocket-higher-on-optimism-iran-war-could-end-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"World markets rocket higher on optimism Iran war could end soon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Stocks<span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\"> soared, bonds rallied and the Dollar wallowed on Wednesday, as hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran conflict fuelled the biggest rebound in \u200cregional equities in more than three years.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Europe&#8217;s STOXX 600 surged 2.3% in early trade, on track for its biggest daily jump in a year, as travel stocks rose about 4% and aerospace and defence stocks were 3.6% higher.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">German bund yields fell 7 basis points .<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Morgan Stanley Capital International&#8217;s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 4.7%, snapping a four-day losing streak to log its biggest one-day increase since November 2022, after President Donald Trump said the United States could end its military attacks \u200bon Iran in two to three weeks.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">&#8220;They&#8217;re still quite far apart in terms of what a truce means, or what peace means, but the market is embracing the fact that \u200bthey are talking,&#8221; said Rodrigo Catril, currency Strategist at National Australia Bank in Sydney.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">&#8220;That&#8217;s a positive sign, at least in terms of signalling or \u2060willingness to end the conflict,&#8221; he said, speaking on a podcast. Whether a compromise can be reached remains to be seen. &#8220;While this is all happening, attacks are continuing from both sides.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Robust economic data \u200bfor March powered a rebound in Korean and Japanese shares. South Korea&#8217;s Kospi led gains, rising as much as 9.1%, while the Nikkei 225 surged 5.2%, and Taiwanese shares gained 4.6% at the highs \u200bof the day.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The rally shrugged off a report in the Wall Street Journal that the United Arab Emirates may enter the conflict, opens new tab and is lobbying for a United Nations Security Council Resolution to authorise it to take part in military action to force open the Strait of Hormuz.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13130,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30534","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Stocks soared, bonds rallied and the Dollar wallowed on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30535,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30534\/revisions\/30535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}