World Shares Mostly Higher Friday      04/10 04:50

   World shares were mostly up Friday tracking Wall Street gains while oil 
prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and ahead of Iran-U.S. talks 
in Pakistan.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares were mostly up Friday tracking Wall Street 
gains while oil prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and ahead of 
Iran-U.S. talks in Pakistan.

   In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 10,627.69. 
France's CAC 40 also gained 0.2% to 8,265.80, while Germany's DAX rose 0.2% to 
23,844.89.

   Asian stocks ended mostly higher Friday. South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.4% to 
5,858.87. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8% to 56,924.11. Shares of Fast 
Retailing, parent of Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, surged 12% after the 
group raised profit expectations for the year.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6% to 25,893.54, while the Shanghai Composite 
index was 0.5% higher at 3,986.22. China on Friday reported that its consumer 
price index -- a main inflation gauge -- was up 1% in March compared with a 
year ago, lower than what analysts had expected and down from the 1.3% increase 
in February.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.1%, while Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.6%.

   Talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for a 
possible permanent ceasefire agreement in the Iran war are expected to take 
place starting Saturday, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance leading the 
delegation for the United States.

   But ahead of the talks, deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday 
raised questions whether the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is still 
intact, while the Islamic Republic maintained control over the Strait of 
Hormuz, which is largely closed despite demands from the U.S. to reopen the 
waterway critical for global oil and gas transport.

   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorized talks with 
Lebanon, with negotiations said to be expected in Washington next week.

   Oil was up on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, was 1.8% 
higher at $97.68 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 1.9% to $99.76 a 
barrel.

   For oil prices, "$65-70 a barrel is not coming back," Ajay Rajadhyaksha of 
Barclays wrote in a recent research note, referring to the pre-Iran war oil 
price levels. The bank predicts that Brent crude could remain at around $85 per 
barrel on average for this year.

   "A ceasefire is not a refund," he wrote. "Ceasefires end wars; they don't 
undo them."

   On Thursday, Wall Street gained on hopes of the Iran war ceasefire. The S&P 
500 added 0.6% to 6,824.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 
48,185.80, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to 22,822.42.

   Shares of Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and Corona beers in the 
U.S., jumped 8.5% following better-than-expected quarterly results. Cloud 
services provider CoreWeave was 3.5% higher after announcing an expanded deal 
with Meta Platforms through 2032. Meta was up 2.6%.

   In other dealings, gold and silver prices fell. Gold's price lost 1.1% to 
$4,765.60 an ounce, while silver prices dropped 1.7% to $75.13 per ounce.

   The U.S. dollar rose to 159.31 Japanese yen from 158.96 yen. The euro was 
trading at $1.1685, down from $1.1699.