Asia-Pacific markets rise in Easter trade on hopes for Hormuz reopening

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Asia-Pacific markets traded higher Friday, after news that Iran and Oman were drafting a protocol to “monitor transit” through the Strait of Hormuz raised hopes that the crucial waterway could partially reopen.

Tanker traffic through the key oil-shipping route “should be supervised and coordinated” with the two countries, said Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister of legal and international affairs, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Oil prices continued to spike, however, with U.S. crude futures jumping almost 12% to trade at 112.06 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent was up around 8% at $109.24.

The spot price for current physical cargoes of Brent crude oil soared Thursday to $141.36, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, according to S&P Global.

South Korea’s Kospi led gains in the region, rising 3.25%, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 2.15%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.67%, and the broad-based Topix was 1.38% higher.

The Australian and Hong Kong markets were closed for the Easter weekend.

U.S. futures were little changed, with S&P 500 futures flat, and the Nasdaq-100 futures down 0.07%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9 points, or 0.02%.

Overnight in the U.S., markets saw a volatile session amid rising oil prices, but the major indexes ended little changed, with the blue-chip Dow declining 61.07 points, or 0.13%.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.11%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.18%.

— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger, Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.

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