Renewed geopolitical risks from the Middle East war continued to rattle global market sentiment amidst the escalated attacks on oil and transport infrastructure across the Middle East. Inflation concerns mounted amidst the persistent rise in crude oil prices.
Wall Street Futures are currently trading in the red. Benchmarks in Europe are also trading in negative territory. Earlier, Asian markets had finished trading with losses.
The dollar index has edged up. Bond yields have mostly hardened.
Both the crude oil price benchmarks are now trading more than 5 percent higher on an overnight basis despite moves to release oil from strategic oil reserves. Brent has rallied more than 45 percent in the past month while WTI crude has rallied almost 48 percent during the same period.
Gold prices have edged down. Cryptocurrencies are however trading in the overnight green zone amidst favorable regulatory initiatives in the U.S. Here is a snapshot of the major world markets at this hour.
Stock Indexes:
DJIA (US30) at 47,003.30, down 0.87% S&P 500 (US500) at 6,728.90, down 0.69%Germany's DAX at 23,533.45, down 0.23% U.K.'s FTSE 100 at 10,300.83, down 0.51% France's CAC 40 at 7,990.93, down 0.63%Euro Stoxx 50 at 5,745.05, down 0.86% Japan's Nikkei 225 at 54,452.96, down 1.04%Australia's S&P ASX 200 at 8,629.00, down 1.31%China's Shanghai Composite at 4,129.10, down 0.10%Hong Kong's Hang Seng at 25,716.76, down 0.70% South Korea's KOSPI at 5,583.25, down 0.48%
Currencies:
EUR/USD at 1.1555, down 0.10%GBP/USD at 1.3399, down 0.10%USD/JPY at 158.70, down 0.16%AUD/USD at 0.7139, down 0.18%USD/CAD at 1.3593, up 0.00% Dollar Index at 99.26, up 0.03%
Ten-Year Govt Bond Yields:
U.S. at 4.219%, up 0.29% Germany at 2.9291%, down 0.10%France at 3.574%, up 0.00%U.K. at 4.7160%, up 0.68%Japan at 2.182%, up 0.51%
Commodities:
Brent Oil Futures (May) at $97.32, up 5.81%.Crude Oil WTI Futures (Apr) at $91.84, up 5.26%.Gold Futures (Apr) at $5,186.15, up 0.14%. Silver Futures (May) at $87.24, up 1.99%.
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin at $70,683.42, up 1.82%Ethereum at $2,074.62, up 2.68%BNB at $653.39, up 2.54%XRP at $1.39, up 1.18%Solana at $86.96, up 2.58%
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Business News
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.