European stocks subdued as U.S. begins new effort to reopen Strait of Hormuz in Stock News 04/05/2026 European stock markets kicked off the trading week in muted fashion, as investors eyed a fresh effort by the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. By 03:08 ET (07:08 GMT), the pan-European Stoxx 600 had gained 0.2% and the Dax in Germany had inched up by 0.2%, while the CAC 40 in France and the FTSE 100 in the United Kingdom were broadly unchanged. Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new push to help vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz navigate out of the narrow waterway, although he did not provide many further details. On Monday, the Joint Maritime Information Centers said the U.S. had established an “enhanced security area” south of typical shipping routes and told ships to work closely with Omani officials because of high anticipated traffic volume, the Associated Press reported. Traditional routes through the strait are considered to be “extremely hazardous” due to the presence of naval mines that “have not been fully surveyed and mitigated,” the center said, according to the AP. Unblocking the strait has become a critical concern for global markets. The conduit, a chokepoint located off of Iran’s southern coast through which a fifth of the world’s oil traverses, has been virtually locked down by Tehran since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint assault on the country in late February. Source: Investing.com 2026-05-04 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share