Top Stories; Asia markets rise as hopes of U.S.-Iran deal lift Wall Street benchmarks to new records
Top Stories — Thursday, April 16, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Asia markets rise as hopes of U.S.-Iran deal lift Wall Street benchmarks to new records — CNBC
- Iran Will Be in U.S. for World Cup, FIFA’s Infantino Says — nyt News
- China economic growth accelerates to 5% in first quarter, beating expectations, on robust exports — CNBC
Asia markets rise as hopes of U.S.-Iran deal lift Wall Street benchmarks to new records
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/16/2026, 7:58:43 AM
Asia-Pacific markets open broadly higher Thursday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal grew.
Stocks have rallied this week on the possibility of a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran. The S&P 500, which fully recovered from its Iran war losses on Monday, has risen 3% this week. The Nasdaq and Dow, meanwhile, have added around 5% and more than 1%, respectively.
Investors will also be focusing on China's first-quarter GDP data.
The Iran war is "very close to over," President Donald Trump said in a Fox Business interview that aired on Wednesday, again claiming that Tehran wants to "make a deal very badly."
A White House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of negotiations between Washington and Iran is under discussion. According to the official, who asked not to be named to discuss the administration's plans, said nothing has been officially scheduled yet.
Oil prices were volatile in Thursday trade. The West Texas Intermediate gained 0.26% at $91.53 per barrel as of 10:06 p.m. ET. International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.23% at $95.15 per barrel.
Both South Korea and Japan stocks extended early gains. South Korea's Kospi advanced 2.12% while the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.10% higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.17%, while the Topix gained 1.33%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.25% lower. Labor data released Thursday showed that Australian employment rose 1.4% in March from a year ago, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.
Mainland China's CSI 300 index rose 0.56%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.89%.
China's economy accelerated in the first quarter, supported by robust export growth, which helped offset tepid domestic demand, even as the growth outlook was clouded by the Iran war-fueled energy shock threatening global demand.
Gross domestic product grew 5% in the three months to March, data from the National Statistics Bureau showed Thursday, accelerating from 4.5% in the prior quarter and exceeding economists' forecast for a 4.8% growth in a Reuters poll.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.80%, ending at 7,022.95. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.59% to 24,016.02, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 72.27 points, or 0.15%, to close at 48,463.72.
Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed at records, with the tech-heavy index posting an 11th-day win streak and the broad market benchmark notching its 10th positive session out of 11.
— CNBC's Anniek Bao, Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
Iran Will Be in U.S. for World Cup, FIFA’s Infantino Says
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/16/2026, 7:45:22 AM
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday that the “Iranian team is coming, for sure,” to play in the World Cup in the United States this summer.
Speaking at CNBC’s Invest in America Forum in Washington, he said, “We hope that by then, of course, the situation will be a peaceful situation. As I said, that would definitely help. But Iran has to come.”
The comments come as peace talks between Iran and the United States have not yet resumed, and a cease-fire is set to expire next week. President Trump has said that it would not be “appropriate” for Iran to participate in the tournament this summer and that it may be a risk for the players’ “own life and safety.”
It remains unclear whether Iran will pull out of the tournament. Iran’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, told state TV in February the team “certainly” would not participate after strikes by the United States and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader.
In March, Iran said it was negotiating with FIFA to move its matches from the United States to Mexico, which is co-hosting the tournament along with Canada. But FIFA made it clear that it had no plans to do so.
“Sports should be outside of politics,” Mr. Infantino said at the CNBC event.
Iran was drawn to play two group-stage games in Los Angeles, home to one of the world’s largest Iranian diasporas, and one in Seattle. The United States is in a different group and could play Iran only if both teams advance in the tournament.
In 1998, Iran earned its first World Cup victory by knocking out the United States in a memorable 2-1 win that drew thousands of celebrants into the streets of Tehran. In 2022, the United States squeaked by Iran 1-0 in a dramatic match to advance to the round of 16.
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
Read the full story at nyt News.
China economic growth accelerates to 5% in first quarter, beating expectations, on robust exports
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/16/2026, 7:43:12 AM
China's economy gathered steam in the first quarter, as robust exports growth offset tepid domestic demand, though the Iran war-fueled energy shock clouds growth outlook, threatening global demand.
Gross domestic product grew 5% in the three months to March, data from the National Statistics Bureau showed Thursday, accelerating from 4.5% in the prior quarter and exceeding economists' forecast for a 4.8% growth in a Reuters poll.
Beijing had lowered its growth target this year to a range of 4.5% to 5%, the least ambitious goal on record going back to the early 1990s, in a tacit acknowledgement of demand slowdown and lingering trade tensions with the U.S.
"We should be aware that the external environment is becoming more complex and volatile," the statistics bureau said in a statement, warning of "acute" imbalance between "strong supply and weak demand."
Separately, urban fixed-asset investment, including real estate and infrastructure investment, climbed 1.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, missing expectations for a 1.9% growth in a Reuters poll. Investment in the property sector dropped 11.2%.
In March, China's retail sales grew 1.7% from a year earlier, slowing from a holiday-boosted 2.8% increase in February and undershooting economists' forecast for a 2.3% growth.
Industrial output expanded 5.7% last month from a year ago, stronger than analysts' expectations for a 5.5% rise, and compared with 6.3% expansion in February.
The urban survey-based unemployment rate in March was 5.4%, picking up from 5.3% in February.
As the world's largest oil importer and a heavily export-reliant economy, China is vulnerable to an oil shock that's already slowing trade, pushing up factory costs, and darkening the outlook for the rest of the year.
In the first quarter, China's exports grew 14.7% from a year earlier in terms of U.S. dollars, the fastest pace since early 2022, according to Economist Intelligence Unit.
But in March, the country's exports growth slowed to 2.5% in March, down sharply from 21.8% in the January-to-February period as the Iran war pushed up energy and logistics costs, weighing on global demand.
China's factory‑gate prices rose in March for the first time in more than three years, signaling that a spike in energy costs has started seeping into the manufacturing sector and threatening already-thin corporate margins.
— CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
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