Oil prices advanced Thursday, with Brent crude trading near $97 a barrel, as renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran influenced global markets. U.S. President Donald Trump stated Wednesday that he did not anticipate the U.S. bombing campaign to last much longer.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.7% to $97.25 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude advanced 1.9% to $92.71 a barrel. These increases followed earlier losses for oil prices.

Global stock markets presented a mixed performance. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.2%, while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.4% lower, and the Shanghai Composite index climbed less than 0.1%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5%. The Taiex in Taiwan fell 0.7%, and India’s Sensex lost 0.6%.

European markets also showed varied results. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.2%, and France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.4%. U.S. futures were little changed in early trading.

The mixed global performance followed gains on Wall Street, where the benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.5% on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite increased 0.5%. Investors were influenced by positive signals regarding demand for artificial intelligence from companies like Dell and Palo Alto Networks, a trend that has significantly driven the S&P 500's gains this year.

In bond markets, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury fell to around 4.78% from more than 4.81% early Wednesday. This movement occurred after a global bond sell-off raised concerns over inflation, energy shocks related to the Iran conflict, and rising U.S. government debt.

The U.S. is scheduled to release its employment report for August on Friday.

In currency trading, the Japanese yen strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar, trading at 156.40 yen early Thursday, down 1.5% from 158.71 yen late Wednesday. Earlier in the week, the dollar had surpassed 160 yen, leading to expectations of potential regulatory intervention to curb the yen's further decline. The euro was trading at $1.1602, up from $1.1588.