Seoul Gazette - Asia stocks up, oil down on Mideast deal hopes

Iran's position remained unclear however, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei saying Tehran "had not reached a final conclusion on the agreement."

Investors were also awaiting the market debut later Friday of Elon Musk's SpaceX, set to be the biggest initial public offering in history.

Wall Street rallied and oil prices tumbled Thursday after Trump's comments, with the broad-based S&P 500 ending up 1.8 percent.

"Donald Trump's rhetoric flipped intraday from strike risk and hard military language toward no immediate attack, high-level diplomacy with Iran and talk of a deal being close enough to sign as soon as this weekend in Europe, with Vice President JD Vance expected to attend," said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 after the Iran war sent oil and gas prices soaring.

Markets see a rising chance that the Federal Reserve will also increase US interest rates. The Bank of Japan meets next week.

"(With) inflation pressures continuing to build, there will almost certainly still be a majority in favour of a (BOJ) rate hike," said Abhijit Surya at Capital Economics.

In Asia, the Nikkei was up around 3.5 percent around midday while Seoul's chip-heavy Kospi soared close to eight percent. The Hang Seng and Shanghai also rallied.

Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate were down around more than one percent.

- Key figures around 0300 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 3.47 percent at 66,442.94

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.72 percent at 24,666.41

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.73 percent at 4,055.96

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1568 from $1.1579 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3409 from $1.3418

Dollar/yen: UP at 160.28 yen from 159.78 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.27 pence from 86.29 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.45 percent at $89.07 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.35 percent at $86.53 a barrel

T.Gil--SG