The time has come for Monaco to step up its game as French league leader Paris Saint-Germain travels to the Principality this weekend.
Monaco has a squad packed with talent but already lags 10 points behind PSG , having lost five of its 13 league matches.
The lack of confidence within coach Sébastien Pocognoli’s side was clear on Wednesday, when Monaco drew 2-2 with Pafos in the Champions League, twice letting the lead slip.
The eight-time French champion has won only one of its past five matches across all competitions, with Pocognoli still struggling to find the right formula since replacing Adi Hütter in October.
“We have too many variations in character and it’s up to me to bring that under control,” Pocognoli said. "I’ve been working on it for a month. I’m trying to understand (the team), push it and stimulate it, it’s something that takes time.”
Monaco's defense has been porous, having already conceded 25 league goals. It's a worrying sign, especially with PSG coming to the Côte d'Azur on the back of a big 5-3 win against Tottenham.
Still unbeaten at home, second-place Marseille hosts Toulouse as it seeks to extend its winning streak to four matches in all competitions.
Marseille's confident club moto “Droit au But,” which translates as “Straight to Goal,” has been reflected in its performances this season. It has scored 10 goals in its past three outings. Toulouse sits 10th in the table.
Level on points with Marseille, two behind PSG, third-place Lens travels to Angers.
None of PSG's five goals against Tottenham came from its forwards. Vitinha took on scoring duties with a hat trick.
The Portuguese midfielder, who finished third in this year’s Ballon d’Or vote, is essential to PSG. He has been involved in 13 goals this season — scoring five and providing eight assists.
“Vitinha is growing and the team also,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “He’s so special, so different. I’m very happy for him because he deserves that. He works so hard, shows such personality.”
Although he did not score in Marseille's 2-1 win against Newcastle midweek, Mason Greenwood has been in scintillating form. He is the league's top scorer with 10 goals and keeps creating chances with his flair and inspired attacking play. Will it be enough to earn him an England recall in time for the World Cup next year? That still looks unlikely, after his promising career and reputation took a blow when he was arrested in 2022 and later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault. The case was later dropped.
Toulouse player Aron Dønnum has been suspended for two matches by the league's disciplinary committee for a controversial gesture toward Le Havre midfielder Simon Ebonog.
Dønnum was accused by Le Havre coach Didier Digard, following a 0-0 draw on Nov. 2., of making a racist gesture with his hand toward Ebonog, who is Black, after the players had an argument.
The disciplinary committee did not consider the gesture was racist but ruled that Dønnum's behaviour had been “offensive.” His suspension will begin on Dec. 2, meaning he will still be eligible to play against Marseille.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Marseille's Mason Greenwood, right, attempts a shot at goal during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Marseille and Newcastle United in Marseille, France, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)
PSG's Vitinha celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Paris Saint Germain and Tottenham, in Paris, Wednesday, Nov.26, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Pafos' Mons Bassouamina, centre, makes an attempt to score during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Pafos FC and AS Monaco in Limassol, Cyprus, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rushed higher worldwide, and oil prices eased Wednesday as hopes built that the war with Iran could end soon. That’s even though some of the signals investors saw as hopeful are already under dispute, and several earlier bouts of optimism in financial markets quickly got undercut by continued, fierce fighting in the war.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and added to its leap from the day before, which was its best since last spring. That followed even bigger gains for stock markets across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South Korea, which were catching up to Wall Street’s rally from Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 224 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.2%.
Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that the U.S. military could end its offensive in two to three weeks.
That added to optimism following a couple tenuous signals of hope from earlier Tuesday that Wall Street latched onto, including a news report quoting Iran’s president as saying that it has “the necessary will to end the war” as long as certain requirements are met, including “guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.”
The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and keep oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets, which could create a brutal blast of inflation.
But hope has been quick to reverse to doubt on Wall Street, triggering manic swings back and forth for financial markets since the war with Iran began. Trump has also made statements that lifted markets, only to see the gains quickly disappear after increasing his military threats.
Shortly before Wall Street began trading on Wednesday, Trump claimed in a post on his social media network that Iran “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, quickly called that claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.
Oil prices also remain high, even if they’ve eased recently. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting around $101 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70 before the war began.
U.S. gasoline prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06 per gallon, according to the auto club AAA.
Iran, meanwhile, hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran as the fighting continued. Iran also continues to hold a grip on the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.
“De-escalation hopes have given markets a lift, but we think the effects of the war would, in many cases, persist even if the war did end soon,” Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research note Wednesday.
“It’s worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end ‘very soon,’” he wrote. “Do markets have further to recover if sentiment continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes.”
The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening on the Iran war.
On Wall Street, three out of every five stocks within the S&P 500 rose as Big Tech powered the move higher. Gains of 3.4% for Alphabet and 0.8% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.
Eli Lilly rallied 3.8% after U.S. regulators approved its GLP-1 pill for weight loss.
Such gains have pulled the S&P 500, which sits at the heart of many 401(k) accounts, back to within 5.8% of its all-time high set early this year. Just on Monday, the index briefly neared a 10% drop from its record, a steep-enough fall that professional investors have a name for it: a “correction.”
Nike sank 15.5% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster financial forecasts.
Oil companies also fell with the price of crude. Exxon Mobil slumped 5.2%, and Chevron dropped 4.6%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 46.80 points to 6,575.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 224.23 to 46,565.74, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 250.32 to 21,840.95.
In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 2% in France and Germany. Asian markets had even bigger gains.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey showed business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite worries about the Iran war.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said U.S. retailers made more money in February than economists expected. A separate report said U.S. manufacturing growth last month was slightly faster than economists expected.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% late Tuesday.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
James Conti works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader reacts near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A screen displays financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
