BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices climbed early Tuesday as fighting intensified in the Middle East, while Asian shares declined, dragged lower by losses for artificial-intelligence stocks.
The price of Brent crude climbed to just over $84 a barrel after soaring nearly 10% on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude was up 1.4% at $79.20 a barrel.
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Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Kim Ju-hyung/Yonhap via AP)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Oil prices are still below their wartime peak of nearly $120 a barrel, but uncertainty over the future stability of supplies deepened as the U.S. and Iran each asserted they controlled the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. share futures were down 0.3% as the U.S. launched more strikes on Iran after President Donald Trump said Washington was “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the strait.
Fighting in the region has kept oil tankers from using the waterway to deliver crude to customers from the Persian Gulf, driving up fuel prices worldwide.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 66,574.96 and the Kospi in South Korea declined 3.2% to 6,589.37.
The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.8% to 3,884.32, even though the government reported that China's exports jumped 27% in June from a year earlier as adoption of artificial intelligence drove strong demand for computer chips and other technology.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher, to 24,230.46, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 8,767.00.
Monday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, coming off its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%.
Chip stocks like Micron Technology helped lead the way lower. Micron fell 4.4%, eating into what had been a stellar rise of 243.1% for the year so far.
Worries are rising that stock prices have shot too high and that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much profit and productivity as expected.
Nvidia fell 3.5%. Because it’s the largest stock on Wall Street by value thanks to the euphoria around AI, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.
Much of Wall Street’s attention this week will be on profit reports from companies saying how much they earned during the spring. On Tuesday alone, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are all releasing their latest quarterly results.
Analysts are forecasting that companies in the S&P 500 index will deliver overall growth of 23.6% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. If they’re right, it would be the second straight quarter of growth better than 20%.
Companies across industries will need to deliver strong growth to justify the big moves their stock prices have made. Indexes are near records despite their sharp recent swings due to worries around AI stocks.
More costly oil would push inflation higher, potentially leading the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates. Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar slipped to 162.34 Japanese yen from 162.35 yen. The euro rose to $1.1391 from $1.1381.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed to this report.
Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Kim Ju-hyung/Yonhap via AP)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thai authorities are investigating a Bangkok bar fire that killed at least 30 people and injured dozens more, the latest in a long history of catastrophic fires at bars, clubs, and other nightlife venues worldwide.
Experts say the high death toll may reflect factors common to past entertainment venue fires, including inadequate safety measures. The blaze, which broke out shortly before midnight Sunday, apparently spread rapidly across a ceiling lined with flammable decorative materials before reaching the main entrance. Local media suggest crowded conditions, obstructed escape routes, and panic may have hampered evacuation.
Here’s what to know about the fire:
Videos shared online by witnesses show a blaze engulfing the Na Ladprao music bar as thick black smoke pours from the front entrance and people scramble to flee. Photos and videos from the scene Monday showed Thai investigators examining the gutted building, where the heaviest damage appeared to be overhead. Large sections of the ceiling were destroyed, blackened and charred, while the floor and tables below, some still with beer bottles on them, were blanketed in ash and debris.
Thailand Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said a musician performing at the bar told him he saw smoke coming from a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out. An explosion was then heard and thick smoke quickly filled the bar.
Thai officials said investigators would examine the ceiling materials and whether any emergency exits were obstructed, potentially hindering evacuation. A Google image from February shows what appeared to be plastic plants in the ceiling above the stage.
Lee Young Ju, a fire safety professor at South Korea’s Kyungil University, said the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault, possibly involving audio or lighting equipment or faulty wiring, sparking a blaze that quickly spread across the ceiling.
Aside from examining whether flammable materials were used in the interior and how electrical wiring was installed overhead, police are also investigating whether gas canisters were stored in the kitchen and whether they contributed to the blaze, Royal Thai Police chief Kittharath Punpetch said.
Huang Xinyan, a professor at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, said footage of the fire site suggests the bar contained combustible foam materials, lacked a sprinkler system and had small exits that may have hampered evacuation. He added that plastic decorations on the ceiling may have been combined with combustible foam soundproofing materials, potentially fueling the fire’s rapid spread.
While the bar may have fallen short of safety standards, Lee said it’s unclear whether sprinklers would have slowed the blaze if it spread across the ceiling, as they are not designed to extinguish fires burning overhead.
The fire is the latest in a string of deadly blazes at entertainment venues around the world, a recurring type of disaster that has killed hundreds of people over the years. In the early hours of New Year's Day, a fire tore through a bar in the Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100. A 2013 fire at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, southern Brazil, killed more than 200.
Huang said the Bangkok fire may resemble the fire in Switzerland, noting that such venues tend to have large amounts of flammable soundproofing materials and overcrowded conditions which contribute to the high number of casualties.
Lee said the large number of fatalities in entertainment venue fires often stem from big crowds packed into relatively small spaces, making quick evacuation difficult. Such venues frequently lack sufficient exits, and most patrons are familiar only with the main entrance they used to enter, while loud music and alcohol can leave them less aware and slower to respond when an emergency strikes, he said.
Jiang Liming, another professor at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, noted that pubs typically lack large glass windows and the exits may be blocked by panicked people when there’s a fire.
“Once there was a rapidly growing fire, large (numbers) of casualties might occur due to high density of people and fast accumulation of smoke,” Jiang said.
Kong Ha-song, a disaster prevention professor at South Korea’s Woosuk University, said death tolls in bar and nightclub fires are often worsened because the venues can resemble a “maze,” with beer crates, tables and other obstacles blocking hallways and escape routes, while emergency exits are sometimes kept locked to prevent unauthorized entry or theft.
Kittharath, the Thai police chief, said the single-story bar had four exits, but police were examining whether the two rear exits were blocked or unusable. One exit near the restrooms, where most of the victims were found, had a table blocking the way, while another near the kitchen had a damaged exit sign and a sliding door missing its handle.
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Leung reported from Hong Kong. AP writer Jintamas Saksornchai contributed from Bangkok.
A forensic police officer leaves the site of a fire in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
In this handout photo released by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, forensic police officers inspect the site of a fire in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration via AP)
One of relatives of fire victims, front, leaves the Institute of Forensic Police hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026, following a fire at a beer hall. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
In this handout photo released by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, forensic police officers inspect the site of a fire in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration via AP)
In this handout photo released by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the interior of a beer bar is seen after a fire in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration via AP)
