World stocks volatile as oil hits near six-month highs

London — Oil prices jumped to near six-month highs on Tuesday as the US tightened sanctions on Iran, sending shares of energy companies higher but largely failing to help the currencies of the main crude-oil producers. News that the US had told buyers of Iranian oil to stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions pushed Brent towards $75 a barrel and made for a lively return from the four-day Easter break for Europe’s markets. Oil and gas shares jumped more than 1.7% for their best start in six weeks, though almost every other sector suffered. So did bonds, as higher energy costs hung over profits and nudged up inflation expectations. Foreign-exchange market volatility was still largely absent. The dollar held near a three-week high, but the usual beneficiaries of higher oil prices, the Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone, dipped to $1.33 and $8.52 respectively. “Oil is interesting, but the interesting thing for forex is that we are not getting the usual feed-through in the petrocurren...