U.S. markets ticked modestly higher in premarket trading and oil prices retreated for the first time in a week, even as heavy fighting in the Middle East again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2 per cent, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4 per cent. Nasdaq futures were up 0.1 per cent. Even with the gains Friday, all three indexes are on track to finish the week with losses. Looming over markets has been the deepening crisis in the Middle East, worries over an artificial intelligence bubble and another round of tariff hikes by U.S. President Donald Trump. The U.S. is imposing taxes of 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent on imports from 60 trading partners, accounting for 99 per cent of U.S. imports, saying they failed to fully enforce bans on goods produced by forced labor, the Trump administration said Thursday. That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other such tariffs at the Supreme Court. Such uncertainties have helped push the U.S. dollar to a 40-year high against the Japanese yen. A dollar bought 163.79 yen early Friday, down from 163.85 yen and a level last seen in 1986. After shooting to $102 per barrel a day earlier, Brent crude, the international standard, was down $3.02 at $97.67. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around $72 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude slipped $2.43 to $89.76 per barrel. Even with Friday’s decline, both standards are up more than 10 per cent this week. Attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea threatened another avenue that oil companies use to move their crude from the Middle East to customers worldwide, along with the Strait of Hormuz. Underscoring the importance of the sea route for the economy, Trump threatened “major military punishment” against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed by Iran, if they keep attacking ships. Gasoline prices tend to follow oil prices higher, and the average cost for a gallon of regular gas surpassed $4.10 overnight, according to AAA. That’s still lower than this spring as the conflict in Iran expanded, but it’s almost a dollar higher than last year at this time. Higher gas prices generally exacerbate broader inflation and could force the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, which would slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and other investments. More immediately, those prices have changed the way that Americans behave as consumers attempt to offset the more substantial cost of filling up the car. Elsewhere, at midday in Europe Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.3 per cent and Germany’s DAX gained 0.7 per cent. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi stuttered lower, falling 5.7 per cent to 6,690.62. Samsung Electronics sank 7.6 per cent and shares in computer chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 8.3 per cent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 2.7 per cent to 64,611.15, led by losses for technology companies. SoftBank Group, which has massive investments in artificial intelligence, tumbled 7.1 per cent. Most AI-related U.S. stocks were stable early Friday, hovering around their closing prices from the day before. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1 per cent to 24,963.23, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.6 per cent to 3,814.20. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.8 per cent to 8,772.30. Taiwan’s Taiex lost 2.7 per cent, while India’s Sensex traded 0.3 per cent lower. ___ Associated Press Business Writers Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong, Matt Ott in Washington and Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report. Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press
