AI热潮提振亚洲股市，油价攀升施压

Live from Sydney I'm Paul Allen. This is insight where we dive deeper into the stories that matter with crucial context and sharp analysis. Well, crude is edging higher as traders the Strait of Hormuz risks. Despite President Trump's claims of control and Pakistan's talk of a US Iran arrangement. U.S. inflation data is due later. That's set to give us a gauge on the war's impact. Tick leading Asian stock gains after strong eye sales outlooks from core.

We even super micro despite the cost bounce. Taiwan seems to be gaining greater favor with foreign investors. Meanwhile, Seoul's launching of more than $700 million fund targeting AI and strategic industries. We hear exclusively from the Deputy Innovation and Growth minister. We're also going to speak with Standard Chartered CEO about rapid AI adoption of banking despite cybersecurity and governance risks. Top story today.

Oil advancing for a sixth straight day on skepticism about prospects for a deal to restore energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, Pakistan's defense minister said the US and Iran were close to reaching a deal regarding the critical waterway. That's despite both sides publicly toughening their stances. I don't trust Iran. Why are you saying I trust your eyes? I'm the last person to trust Sarah. They've lied to me constantly.

We have total control over the strait right now. They don't have control. We have total control. We own it. And at some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away. Uh, Middle East correspondent Abeer Abu Omar joins us now from Dubai. So a bit President Trump saying, we have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, so why are we even having this conversation? Good morning Paul. That is the good question that everyone is asking themselves.

Right. So President Trump says that the U.S. naval blockade that is currently in place means that the U.S. is controlling the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the main negotiations that are taking place are in fact happening between Iran and Oman. We've obviously reported on this multiple times over the past ten days or so. These are negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. So when you ask if the U.S. is right to assume that it has full control of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran doesn't seem to think so.

And those are the negotiations that are taking place, Al Jazeera reporting recently that those talks are in advanced stages. We don't have clarity on what exactly that means. We've reported that those talks are in the final stages multiple times over the past week or so. The foreign Minister of Iran, Abbas I, actually had come out and said that those talks are in a good place. And then you also mentioned Pakistan's Defense Minister, Jawad Joseph, who told reporters in Islamabad yesterday that things are shaping up to towards peace or towards something better than what we're currently seeing right now.

So in a nutshell, there's a lot on clarity still around the situation and what exactly is going to be that mechanism that opens the Strait of Hormuz or how exactly it will take place? But one thing is for sure, we monitor the physicality of those vessels in the street, and for now, they're stuck and not just stuck. We're actually seeing that they're prone to attacks. The latest from Central Command overnight, saying that it attacked a Panama flagged ship that did not stick to the route that the U.S. had laid out.

So you're not just seeing ships that are prone to Iranian attacks. Now. We're seeing ships prone to American attacks as well. So you have that situation in the Strait of Hormuz, and of course, a perilous situation in the other critical waterway in the Middle East, the Red sea, Babil, Mandeb, that is prone to attacks from the Yemen based Houthi is a militia that is backed by Iran, of course. Yes. The evidence does objectively suggest that the US does not totally control the Strait of Hormuz, as President Trump claims.

I mean, we've got the IEA also saying it sees disruption in oil markets not continuing into 2027. So what are the immediate implications around supply and prices for crude? That's a very good question. So right now what you're seeing, Brent, is what you're seeing Brent doing is Brent is edging very close to $90 on the barrel yet again. We are not yet at a place, Paul, that we're seeing Brent at around 120, 125, the peaks of the war.

That's where we saw Brent edging towards. So we're now seeing it edging very, very close as a matter of fact. Tonight. Dollars on the barrel. Now what? What it means for global supply is you're seeing that when it comes to crude, to crude prices generally. But then it has implications on other crude products. Diesel, natural gas. We've reported the massive surges we've seen in those, especially with winter coming in European nations.

That is going to be a big question that those countries start asking themselves. Those disruptions are set to continue, and our energy colleagues have reported multiple times for that. Even if we saw an immediate, complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz tomorrow, which is not our base case scenario, even that scenario will not lead to the immediate flow of those energy supplies that will take months, that will take an extended period of time, and that is inevitably having an impact on businesses across this oil exporting region.

We've been speaking to a lot of these business owners who say that the disruptions are real. The disruptions are set to have a continuing impact on their business models. All right. Bloomberg Middle East correspondent Abeer Abu Omar in Dubai. Thank you. Oil's climb is putting a lid on Asian stock gains although Korea is enjoying a rebound. Let's check in on how markets are faring with April Hong and Singapore April. Yeah Paul are you seeing crude trending towards a 90?

That seems to be capping a little bit of the sentiment in the region. But Korea, as you say, is powering ahead for a third session of gains. And if this holds, this could be the third session streak that we've seen in the first time in four weeks. And this is against a backdrop of these high tech tailwinds. Right. You got that from earnings whether it's super micro or core weave, whether it's the sales growth or the projections coming up, there is enough demand, it seems from the eye complex.

And then you think to the likes of Nvidia, don't forget how they clarified things in that $500 billion financing plan that helped to ease some of the measures of credit risk. You have Nvidia also launching its first, uh, open source AI model, the first since Jensen Huang threw his support last month behind that approach. So I complex finding enough support. I would just highlight as well. When you look at the likes of Japan back from a market holiday, it is seeing that support from the likes of the Japanese lenders, and this is against the backdrop of those expectations of an early DOJ rate hike.

Now for the board, I would just caveat all this performance that you're seeing in Asia stocks. Also against the backdrop of lower than usual volumes. We are of course watching out for the US CPI, the Tencent earnings. Now those same expectations of an early BOJ rate hike don't seem to be helping the Japanese currency. A lot of the recent yen weakness seems to be driven by the dollar. And of course the US CPI could be a sort of catalyst.

The oil price is trending. This direction also does not help. And you have investors, I think really focusing back again on the fundamentals which drove the yen weakness in the first place. So a lot of the intervention gains have been erased. You're seeing dollar yen trending towards the 160 handle, said the board. Again when it comes to the likes of South Korea, the very interesting dynamic versus the Tai X today that is also outperforming is how, following on from the July I wrote, we have actually been seeing how the foreign investor flows.

They've to net buyers for Taiwan. They're still net sellers for