Oil prices hold steady but Wall Street and global markets higher despite doubts about U.S.-Iran talks

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)

Wall Street followed global markets higher and oil prices were flat Tuesday as U.S.-Iran talks aimed at ending the war remained in doubt.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6 per cent. Nasdaq futures gained 0.4 per cent.

U.S. benchmark crude slipped 14 cents to US$87.28 per barrel, while the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, is off 47 cents to US$95.01.

The Iran war has disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about a fifth of the global oil supply passes on a typical day, pushing energy sharply higher.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that Tehran allow traffic to pass through the strait, which is on its southern border, and has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator said his nation wouldn’t negotiate in the face of threats while U.S. President Donald Trump offered mixed messages about the path ahead for the Iran war.

Qalibaf, who is also Iran’s parliamentary speaker, wrote in a post on X early Tuesday that “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats.”

Trump indicated that he still expects to dispatch his negotiating team, led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad for talks, even as Iran insisted it would not take part until the U.S. leader dialed back his demands. Trump said he’s “highly unlikely” to renew the ceasefire before it expires Wednesday.

“The current dynamic is one of a precarious balance of truce,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary, so “as the ceasefire draws to its 2-week deadline, the all-consuming question is whether both sides can seize on the talks to land on a US-Iran deal that ends the war.”

For now, oil prices remain well below the US$119 per barrel level for Brent crude when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.

In early equities trading, shares of Apple barely moved after the iPhone maker announced Monday night that CEO Tim Cook was stepping down from the job that he inherited from the late Steve Jobs.

Cook, 65, will turn the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, on Sept. 1, ending a 15-year reign that saw the company’s market value soar by more than US$3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity. Cook will remain involved with the tech giant, serving as its executive chairman.

UnitedHealth Group soared more than 7 per cent in premarket after its first-quarter results came in ahead of Wall Street projections and the health care company raised its full-year profit outlook.

Markets will also have their eyes on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, will appear at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, will likely face a range of tough questions at the hearing. Democrats on the committee have already signaled they will press him about what they argue is a lack of transparency regarding some of his vast financial holdings. It’s not clear when the committee may even be able to vote on his nomination.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 per cent and the CAC 40 in Paris ticked up 0.2 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9 per cent to 59,349.17 on strong gains for tech-related companies like Tokyo Electron, which rose 3.5 per cent. Tech and energy giant SoftBank Group Corp. gained 8.5 per cent, part of the latest wave of gains pinned on expectations of windfalls from artificial intelligence.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7 per cent to 6,388.47, and Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 1.8 per cent.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.5 per cent to 26,481.48 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.1 per cent to 4,085.08.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined less than 0.1 per cent to 8,949.40.

Elaine Kurtenbach And Matt Ott, The Associated Press