Stock market today: Global shares mostly rise after Middle East tensions weigh on Wall St

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly higher Friday after worsening tensions in the Middle East sent stocks lower on Wall Street while boosting crude prices.

France's CAC 40 gained 0.5% to 7,511.38 in early trading, while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1% to 7,511.38. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 8,254.52. U.S. shares were set to drift lower, with Dow futures down nearly 0.1% at 42,291.00. S&P 500 futures were little changed at 42,291.00.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2% to finish at 38,635.62. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7% to 8,150.00. South Korea's Kospi added 0.3% to 2,569.71. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.8% to 22,736.87. Trading was closed in Shanghai for a holiday.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 146.38 Japanese yen from 146.83 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1030 from $1.1034.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took office on Tuesday, gave a policy speech that promised salary increases for workers that exceed inflation, as well as an economic package that will give support for low-income households. He also said he will promote investment to create “a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution.”

Following a meeting between Ishiba and Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, “it was indicated that Japan is unlikely to make any near-term adjustments to its ultra-loose monetary policy,” according to Luca Santos, currency analyst at ACY Securities.

Ueda indicated the loose monetary policy would remain for some time. The Bank of Japan has begun very gradually raising its benchmark rate from near zero. It now stands at around 0.25%.

Expectations of rising rates had pushed the yen higher after the Liberal Democrats elected Ishiba to head the governing party and thus serve as prime minister. But the yen has fallen back against the dollar in the past two days after officials sent clear signals that they did not favor further rate hikes at this time.

A cheaper yen could work as a plus for Japan's giant exporters like Nintendo and Toyota by boosting the value of their overseas earnings. But it raises the cost of imports of oil and other vital commodities, pushing domestic prices higher and pinching household spending.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 62 cents to $74.33 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 69 cents to $78.31 a barrel. On Thursday, Brent leaped 5% after starting the week below $72. It’s potentially on track for its biggest weekly percentage gain in nearly two years.

The rise came after President Joe Biden suggested on Thursday that U.S. and Israeli officials were discussing a possible strike by Israel against Iranian oil facilities.

“We’re in discussion of that,” Biden said to reporters. He added: “I think that would be a little ... anyway,” without finishing the thought. Biden also said he doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate immediately against Iran.

Iran is a major oil producer, and a broadening of the fighting could choke off Iran’s oil flows to China and also affect neighboring countries that are integral to crude supplies. Helping to keep prices in check, though, are signals that oil inventories remain ample at the moment. Brent crude fell to its lowest price in nearly three years last month.

A report Thursday showed growth for real estate, health care and other U.S. services businesses accelerated to its strongest pace since February 2023.

A separate report suggested the number of layoffs across the United States remains relatively low. Slightly more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, but the number remains low compared with history.

Outside of this week’s worries about the Middle East, the dominant question hanging over Wall Street has been whether the job market will continue to hold up after the Federal Reserve earlier held interest rates at a two-decade high. The Fed wanted to press the brake hard enough on the economy to stamp out high inflation.

Stocks are near their records because of hopes the U.S. economy will indeed continue to grow, now that the Fed is cutting interest rates. The Fed last month lowered its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years and indicated more cuts will arrive through next year.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.

FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Wars, a refugee crisis, famine and artificial intelligence could all be recognized when Nobel Prize announcements begin next week under a shroud of violence.

The prize week coincides with the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which began a year of bloodshed and war across the Middle East.

The literature and science prizes could be immune. But the peace prize, which recognizes efforts to end conflict, will be awarded in an atmosphere of ratcheting international violence — if awarded at all.

“I look at the world and see so much conflict, hostility and confrontation, I wonder if this is the year the Nobel Peace Prize should be withheld,” said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

As well as events roiling the Middle East, Smith cites the war in Sudan and risk of famine there, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and his institute's research showing that global military spending is increasing at its fastest pace since World War II.

“It could go to some groups which are making heroic efforts but are marginalized,” Smith said. "But the trend is in the wrong direction. Perhaps it would be right to draw attention to that by withholding the peace prize this year.”

Withholding the Nobel Peace is not new. It has been suspended 19 times in the past, including during the world wars. The last time it was not awarded was in 1972.

However, Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, says withdrawal would be a mistake in 2024, saying the prize is “arguably more important as a way to promote and recognize important work for peace.”

Civil grassroot groups, and international organizations with missions to mitigate violence in the Middle East could be recognized.

Nominees are kept secret for 50 years, but nominators often publicize their picks. Academics at the Free University Amsterdam said they have nominated the Middle East-based organizations EcoPeace, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun for peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

Urdal believes it's possible the committee could consider the Sudan Emergency Response Rooms, a group of grassroots initiatives providing aid to stricken Sudanese facing famine and buffeted by the country’s brutal civil war.

The announcements begin Monday with the physiology or medicine prize, followed on subsequent days by the physics, chemistry, literature and peace awards.

The Peace Prize announcement will be made on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, while all the others will be announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The prize in economics will be announced the following week on Oct. 14.

New technology, possibly artificial intelligence, could be recognized in one or more of the categories.

Critics of AI warn the rise of autonomous weapons shows the new technology could mean additional peace-shattering misery for many people. Yet AI has also enabled scientific breakthroughs that are tipped for recognition in other categories.

David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information, says scientists from Google Deepmind, the AI lab, could be among those under consideration for the chemistry prize.

The company’s artificial intelligence, AlphaFold, “accurately predicts the structure of proteins,” he said. It is already widely used in several fields, including medicine, where it could one day be used to develop a breakthrough drug.

Pendlebury spearheads Clarivate’s list of scientists whose papers are among the world’s most cited, and whose work it says are ripe for Nobel recognition.

“AI will increasingly be a part of the panoply of tools that researchers use,” Pendlebury said. He said he would be extremely surprised if a discovery “firmly anchored in AI” did not win Nobel prizes in the next 10 years.

FILE - Firefighters work on a site of a building damaged by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov, File)

FILE - A woman carries a bucket on her head as she wades through floodwaters in the village of Wang Chot, Old Fangak county, Jonglei state, South Sudan, on Nov. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Maura Ajak, File)

FILE - Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern, on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Mats Larsson, member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, standing at left, speaks during the announcement of the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, at the Royal Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm, on Oct. 3, 2023. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP, File)