World Shares Fall on Trump Comments    04/02 04:50

   Oil rose more than 7% and world shares fell after President Donald Trump 
said in his first national address since the Iran war began that the U.S. will 
continue to hit Iran very hard.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- Oil rose more than 7% and world shares fell after 
President Donald Trump said in his first national address since the Iran war 
began that the U.S. will continue to hit Iran very hard.

   Trump also said in his Wednesday night speech that the United States will 
"finish the job" in Iran soon as "core strategic objectives are nearing 
completion" and military operations could wrap up soon.

   "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. 
We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong," Trump 
said in his address.

   Trump did not mention a looming deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait 
of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport, after he 
threatened Iran earlier with U.S. attacks on its energy infrastructure if the 
strait was not reopened. He did not offer a clear path to end the supply 
disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring.

   In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 10,342.28. 
France's CAC 40 was 0.8% lower at 7,917.81, and Germany's DAX lost 1.6% to 
22,935.01.

   Asian shares closed lower. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was down 2.4% to 52,463.27 on 
Thursday. South Korea's Kospi lost 4.5% to 5,234.05, also after government data 
showed consumer prices in March rose 2.2% from a year earlier on soaring fuel 
costs.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7% to 25,116.53, the Shanghai Composite index 
was down 0.7% to 3,919.29.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.1%, while Taiwan's Taiex traded 1.8% lower.

   U.S. futures were down. The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.1%, while that for 
the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.9%.

   Oil prices were sharply higher following Trump's remarks. Brent crude, the 
international standard, jumped 7.4% to $108.69. per barrel. Benchmark U.S. 
crude rose 7.1% to $107.24 a barrel.

   "The market has shown disappointment because the speech President Trump made 
was far less than what the market expected," said Takashi Hiroki, chief 
strategist at Monex in Tokyo. "There were no concrete details about the end of 
the hostilities with Iran."

   "What the market wants is a clear outline for the ceasefire," he said.

   Gold and silver prices fell. Gold's price was down 3.4% to $4,648.20 per 
ounce, falling below the $4,700 mark. Silver lost 6.2% to $71.39 an ounce.

   Renewed optimism on Wednesday for a possible end to the Iran war pushed 
world stocks higher, after Trump said late Tuesday the U.S. military could end 
its offensive in two to three weeks.

   On Wednesday, the S&P 500 added 0.7% to 6,575.32. The Dow Jones Industrial 
Average rose 0.5% to 46,565.74, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to 
21,840.95.

   In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.59 Japanese 
yen from 158.82 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1530, down from $1.1589.