Oil prices slip and Asian shares mostly gain as US-Iran talks still in doubt

A dealer walks past the screens showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) 2026-04-21T03:10:54Z Oil prices slipped and Asian shares were mostly higher Tuesday with the future of U.S.-Iran talks aimed at ending the war in doubt. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil dipped 1% to $94.44. U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 1.2% to $86.19 per barrel. U.S. President Donald Trump said Vice President JD Vance would be going to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for talks. But after the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Iranian side made no commitment to more negotiations. In Asian share trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9% to 59,357.74 on strong gains for tech-related companies like Tokyo Electron, which rose 3.2%. Tech and energy giant SoftBank Group Corp. gained 8.2%. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.6% to 6,381.49, and Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 1.8%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.4% to 26,465.04 and the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.1% to 4,077.27. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.1% to 8,943.70. Oil prices had climbed Monday following the latest rise of tensions between the United States and Iran, but the moves were more modest than they were earlier in the war . U.S. stocks, meanwhile, gave back a bit of their record-breaking rally . On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%. Worries over disruptions of supplies of oil from the Persian Gulf if Iran continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz are clouding investor sentiment. (