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The Dow Jones Industrial average closed up more than 600 points on Monday after President Donald Trump claimed “productive conversations” had been held between the United States and Iran.

The major stock indexes each soared more than 2% in early trading but gave up some of those gains as a flurry of headlines about the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran elicited price fluctuations.

The peace talks — which Iranian officials denied — sent the price of oil plunging on Monday on hopes that negotiations could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end a weeks-long global energy shock.

The Dow closed up 631 points or 1.3%, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.3%.

Each of the indexes remained below where it stood before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28.

A selloff cascaded across global markets in recent weeks as stockholders feared economic fallout from a potentially prolonged bout of elevated oil prices.

Global oil prices plunged more than 10% on Monday after Trump made his claim about ongoing negotiations with Iran. Still, the price of oil stood above $100 a barrel, marking a steep rise since the outbreak of war.

Trump, after postponing U.S. strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure citing new negotiations with Tehran, said on Monday that talks will continue and that there are “major points of agreement.”

According to Iranian state media, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said, “no talks with the U.S. have taken place; reports claiming otherwise are fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets and distracting from the challenges facing the U.S. and Israel.”

Gas prices in the United States topped $4 per gallon on average Tuesday, crossing the milestone for the first time in nearly four years, just weeks after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran set off a global oil shock and spiked fuel costs.

Prices at the pump have soared more than 30% since the war began on Feb. 28., AAA data showed, with the average price per gallon now at $4.018. Fuel costs last exceeded $4 a gallon in August 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Middle East conflict prompted Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of global oil supply. The risk of a prolonged oil shortage triggered a surge in crude prices.

The U.S. is a net exporter of petroleum, meaning the country produces more oil than it consumes. But since oil prices are set on a global market, U.S. prices move in response to swings in worldwide supply and demand.

Global oil prices hovered around $117 a barrel on Tuesday, which amounted to a more than 50% price leap from pre-war levels.

Crude oil is the main ingredient in auto fuel, accounting for more than half of the price paid at the pump, according to the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), earlier this week said the current oil crisis had surpassed the combined effect of worldwide energy shocks in the 1970s.

The global economy faces a “major, major threat,” Birol said at an event in Canberra, Australia, noting that no country would be “immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction.”

Stocks closed mixed in volatile trading on Thursday after President Donald Trump delivered a televised address vowing to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 60 points, or 0.1%, after opening down by 600 points, while the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 0.1%.

Each of the major indexes tumbled more than 1% in early trading, but they quickly recovered most or all of those losses.

The rollercoaster trading followed losses across Asian and European markets. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 2.3% and the pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.6%.

Oil prices, meanwhile, surged as traders feared a persistent supply shortage amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. U.S. oil prices climbed more than 10% on Thursday, registering about $111 a barrel.

Gasoline prices in the U.S. ticked up to $4.08 on average per gallon, marking a leap of $1.09 over the past month, AAA data showed.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump voiced mixed messages about his plans for the Middle East conflict. He said Iran is no longer a threat to the U.S. and the war in Iran is “nearing completion.” However, he added, the U.S. plans to continue striking Iran over the next two or three weeks.

“We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” Trump said.

The trading volatility on Thursday interrupted an upswing for markets earlier in the week. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 1,100 points, adding another 220 points on Wednesday as traders anticipated Trump may signal an off-ramp from the war in his evening remarks.

Since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28, Trump has issued conflicting signals about the expected duration of the war. On several occasions, stocks have climbed or fallen as markets weighed the implications of Trump’s comments.

After nearly two decades in power, Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán could be ousted as leader in the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday.

The latest polls indicate that Orbán, a key international ally of President Trump, and his ruling Fidesz party are trailing the opposition center-right Tisza Party and its leader Péter Magyar in an election that will be closely watched by observers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Independent watchdogs and European Union officials have accused Orbán’s government of launching a sustained assault on the country’s democratic institutions and rule of law since he took office in 2010. In the 16 years since he took office, the country has descended to the rank of most corrupt country in the European Union, according to the U.K.-based anti-corruption group Transparency International.

Orbán has used his party’s current supermajority in Hungarian parliament to undermine the independence of the judiciary, crack down on independent media, demonize migrants and discriminate against LGBTQ people, Human Rights Watch has said. Orbán has also become known for making publicly xenophobic and racist statements, calling refugees “Muslim invaders” and saying Hungarians do not want to become a “mixed race.”

Freedom House, a democracy-oriented U.S.-based nonprofit, has designated Hungary as only “partly free,” citing issues with less-than-free-and-fair elections and a stifling of independent institutions under Orbán’s leadership.

Despite concerns over Democratic backsliding in the country, a Thursday poll conducted by the independent pro-democracy research group the IDEA Institute showed that Orbán’s Fidesz party had the support of only 37% of decided voters. The center-right Tisza party has the support of 50% of decided voters, according to the poll.

Could Trump lose a key ally?
Orbán has been one of President Trump’s closest global allies since Mr. Trump was first elected as U.S. president in 2016. He was the only European Union leader to publicly endorse Mr. Trump’s first successful bid for the presidency, and the relationship has deepened between the two men over the past decade.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of violating a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. on Saturday until the end of Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to abide by the ceasefire but warned of a swift military response to any violations.

Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement Sunday that it had recorded 2,299 ceasefire violations by 7 a.m., including assaults, shelling and small drone launches.

“Specifically: 28 enemy assault actions, 479 enemy shellings, 747 strikes by attack drones… and 1,045 strikes by FPV drones,” the Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that it recorded 1,971 ceasefire violations, including drone strikes. It claimed Kyiv had fired 258 times using artillery or tanks, carried out 1,329 FPV drone strikes, and dropped “various types of munitions” on 375 occasions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in an interview that aired Sunday, said Russia would not extend the temporary truce unless Zelenskyy accepts its terms, the Agence France-Presse reported, citing Russian news agencies.

“Sustainable peace can come when we secure our interests and achieve the goals we set from the very start. This can be done literally today. But Zelensky must accept these well-known solutions,” Peskov was quoted as saying. “Until Zelensky musters the courage to assume this responsibility, the special military operation will continue after the truce expires.”

Recent months have seen several rounds of U.S.-brokered negotiations fail to bring the warring parties closer to an agreement to stop the fighting, triggered by Russia’s February 2022 invasion. The process has stalled further since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East.