{"id":205087,"date":"2026-03-23T12:08:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/asia-stocks-slide-as-us-and-iran-threaten-to-intensify-war-bbc\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:08:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:08:46","slug":"asia-stocks-slide-as-us-and-iran-threaten-to-intensify-war-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/asia-stocks-slide-as-us-and-iran-threaten-to-intensify-war-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia stocks slide as US and Iran threaten to intensify war &#8211; BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oil prices have plunged and stock markets have rebounded after US President Donald Trump said the US and Iran had held &quot;very good and productive&quot; talks over halting the conflict in the Middle East.<br \/>After the announcement, the price of Brent crude sank 13%, while the FTSE 100 index rose 0.5% having fallen more than 2% earlier.<br \/>Trump said on social media he would &quot;POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE&quot; for a five-day period.<br \/>On Saturday, he said he would &quot;obliterate&quot; Iranian power plants if the key Strait of Hormuz shipping route was not reopened. Iran had said it would respond by targeting key infrastructure in the region.<br \/>The comments over the weekend had rattled financial markets, adding to fears that the US-Israeli war with Iran would be a prolonged conflict.<br \/>Since the war began on 28 February, Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c78n6p09pzno\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\">one of the world&#x27;s busiest oil shipping channels<\/a>. <br \/>About 20% of the world&#x27;s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes through the waterway &#8211; and the conflict has sent global fuel prices soaring.<br \/>Earlier on Monday, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, had warned the war could see the world facing its worst energy crisis in decades.<br \/>Birol compared the current energy crisis to those of the 1970s and the impact of Russia&#x27;s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<br \/>&quot;This crisis as things stand is now two oil crises and one gas crash put all together,&quot; he said, speaking at an event in Australia.<br \/>At one point on Monday, the price of Brent had hit $113 a barrel, but it tumbled after Trump&#x27;s comments.<br \/>While oil fell, stocks rose. Germany&#x27;s Dax index was 1.6% higher while France&#x27;s Cac was up 1.2%. Earlier, both had been down by about 2%.<br \/>Stocks in Asia, which closed before Trump&#x27;s latest comments, had seen heavy falls.<br \/>Japan&#x27;s Nikkei index closed down 3.5% while South Korea&#x27;s Kospi index sank 6.5%. Japan and South Korea have been particularly affected by the conflict, as they are heavily dependent on oil and gas that would normally pass through the strait. <\/p>\n<p>Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey will be among those attending the emergency Cobra committee meeting.<br \/>Rising oil prices caused by the war in the Gulf has caused an &quot;overnight shock&quot; to west country farmers.<br \/>The concert was attended by an estimated 104,000 fans, much lower than the expected 260,000. <br \/>The European nation, struggling to find skilled staff, is giving jobs to young people from India.<br \/>Conflict has spread across the Middle East since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February. <br \/>Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/feeds-and-links\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"sc-d16436d-0 gCPVhV\">Read about our approach to external linking.<\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiWkFVX3lxTFBweFJsRVRtMVBmVnhGZXBCUzNSbU9QNWJYdHlicEd2aHQyY250YXg5ZGVNR3NQZnNVUms0azI4Z2FVNWZFQmFXRm5Wd2pTbXdXOTRnQlJTSXF5Zw?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil prices have plunged and stock markets have rebounded after US President Donald Trump said the US and Iran had held &quot;very good and productive&quot; talks over halting the conflict in the Middle East.After the announcement, the price of Brent crude sank 13%, while the FTSE 100 index rose 0.5% having fallen more than 2% [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-205087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}