Finance

World shares are mixed and oil climbs as US tries to guide ships from the Strait of Hormuz | AP News

Shares were mixed in Europe and Asia on Monday, with big gains for computer chipmakers and other tech stocks after Friday's rally on Wall Street. Oil prices rebounded and Brent crude climbed more than $2 a barrel as the U.S. launched an effort early Monday to guide ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran rejected the plan but was reviewing the U.S. response to its latest proposal to end the war, Iran’s judiciary Mizan news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei saying Sunday.The price of a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude was up $1.80 at $103.73 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped $2.23 to $110.40 a barrel. The future for the S&P 500 was nearly unchanged, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3%.Germany's DAX edged 0.1% higher to 24,303.77, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.5% to 8,072.91. Markets in Britain were closed for a holiday. In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2% to 26,095.88.Markets in mainland China and Japan were closed for “Golden Week” holidays.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 8,697.10.Strong buying of tech stocks pushed shares in South Korea sharply higher, as the Kospi gained 5.1% to 6,936.99.