WASHINGTON (AP) — King Charles III will deliver an address to Congress during his visit to Washington in late April, becoming the first British monarch to give a speech to a joint meeting of U.S. lawmakers in more than three decades.
The joint address was announced on Wednesday by congressional leaders, who said it was part of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. declaring independence from Britain. The speech also comes at a time of friction between the two nations, which have since become close allies.
President Donald Trump's “America First” foreign policy has called into question the U.S. commitment to European allies, and Britain has declined to support the U.S. involvement in the war in Iran.
Still, congressional leaders emphasized the close relationship between the U.S. and Britain.
“The American experiment endures in no small part because of the British tradition from which it sprang,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a letter addressed to Charles. "We believe an Address to Congress will provide a unique opportunity to share your vision for the future of our special relationship and reaffirm our alliance at this pivotal time in history.”
In Britain, some members of Parliament have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to cancel the state visit by Charles in retaliation for Trump lashing out at them for declining to support the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Starmer decided to proceed with the state visit, which could potentially ease the tensions caused by the war.
The pomp and circumstance of state visits by the British monarch have been used for years to bolster relations with countries around the world. Queen Elizabeth II was the last British monarch to deliver a joint address to Congress, in 1991.
But some lawmakers also want to use the occasion to press forward their investigation into sexual abuse by New York financier Jeffrey Epstein. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna wrote to Charles to request a meeting between him and survivors of abuse from Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I respectfully ask that you privately meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s abuse, so they may speak to you directly about the ways powerful individuals and institutions failed them. Survivors want this meeting,” Khanna said in the letter.
In Britain, there has been intense scrutiny of Epstein's ties to powerful figures in the British government. Last year, Charles stripped the former Prince Andrew, his brother, of his royal titles and evicted him from his royal residence after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein.
Some U.S. lawmakers have bemoaned the fact that the reckoning over Epstein has extended further in Britain and other parts of Europe than it has in the U.S.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking but has sought to be freed from her 20-year prison sentence, saying new evidence proves constitutional violations spoiled her trial.
The former Prince Andrew, now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has repeatedly denied committing any crimes.
FILE - Queen Elizabeth II is applauded by Vice President Dan Quayle and House Speaker Thomas Foley before her address to the U.S. Congress on May 16, 1991 in Washington. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, file)
FILE - President Donald Trump gestures next to Britain's King Charles III before leaving Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rushing higher worldwide, and oil prices are easing Wednesday as hopes build 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 prior bouts of optimism in financial markets quickly got undercut by continued, fierce fighting in the war.
The S&P 500 rose 0.8% 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 was up 357 points, or 0.8%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher.
Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald Trump claimed shortly before Wall Street began trading 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!!!”
Trump had also said the night before 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 against Iran. Investors say Trump’s statements are becoming less impactful for financial markets.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, called Trump’s claim about asking for a ceasefire “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.
And oil prices remain high, even if they’ve eased so far this week. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting at $101.83 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, the majority of stocks rose, with Big Tech powering the move higher. Gains of 2.5% for Alphabet and 1% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.
They helped offset a 14.3% drop for Nike, which fell even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster financial forecasts.
Hasbro fell 3.8% after the toy company found someone had gained unauthorized access to its computer network and is working to assess the full impact.
In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 1.5% in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Asian markets had even bigger gains.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey by Japan’s central bank 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 4.31% 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)
