As US warships enter Hormuz and Iran threatens the United Arab Emirates, oil prices rise.

After US warships crossed the vital Strait of Hormuz and a drone attack caused a fire at an Emirati energy facility, oil prices surged on Monday.

While US market indices fell from record finishes last week, Seoul and Taipei reached new highs on Monday as Asian traders joined the tech share surge.

Following a drone strike that resulted in a fire at an energy complex in the emirate of Fujairah, authorities reported on Monday that oil prices increased, with the benchmark international contract Brent crude for July delivery rising more than five percent.

Later, the UAE’s defense ministry declared that the nation was the target of Iranian missile and drone attacks.

As part of a new ship escort operation that US President Donald Trump announced over the weekend, the US Navy earlier reported that warships crossed the Strait of Hormuz.

The United Arab Emirates had earlier reported that Iran had launched drones at one of its oil tankers, while Iran’s state TV claimed that the Iranian navy had fired a cruise missile “warning shot”.

In reaction to the US-Israeli military assault that started on February 28, Tehran’s forces successfully closed the strait, a vital conduit for the transportation of gas and oil, while Washington continues to blockade Iranian ports.

An initial two-week truce that put an end to the combat has been prolonged indefinitely by Trump, but the crisis and its enormous economic consequences are still unresolved.

Investors have also turned their attention to the corporate sector, where impressive first-quarter profits have sparked a return to the AI trade that has driven numerous markets to all-time highs, despite the Middle East crisis still raging.

Following the market turmoil brought on by the US-Israeli assaults on Iran at the end of February, interest in the artificial intelligence sector was rekindled last week by forecast-beating reports from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung.

“Optimism that AI continues to mask the pain elsewhere” was expressed by Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

According to FactSet, companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report earnings growth of 27.1 percent, the best percentage in almost four years.

Palantir, Advanced Micro Devices, and Arm Holdings are among the other tech companies that will release their profits later on Monday and later this week.

After closing at a record high on Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq first rose before going into the red as oil prices surged.

Although the stock market might be overstretched, many investors who missed the rally might be waiting for a dip to jump into it, according to Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.This could be the reason why the indexes aren’t declining significantly,” he stated.

To set new records, Taipei increased by more than four percent and Seoul increased by more than five percent.

With a 12.5 percent increase, South Korean chip giant SK Hynix stood out, while rival Samsung saw an increase of more than five percent. TSMC, the Taiwanese equivalent, had a 6.6% increase.

Frankfurt and Paris finished the day down more than one percent.

London, Shanghai, and Tokyo were closed for the holidays.

Speculation about additional intervention was sparked by the yen’s earlier Monday surge versus the dollar. On Friday, the currency saw a dramatic increase in value relative to the US dollar. According to media sources, Tokyo spent $31 billion supporting the struggling currency.