Stock market today: World stocks are higher, while oil prices jump $2 after Hamas leader was killed

abcnews.go.com:

Global stocks have advanced and oil prices jumped more than $2 a barrel after Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh died in an air strike

Global stocks advanced Wednesday and oil prices jumped more than $2 a barrel after Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh died in an air strike.

Haniyeh died in a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital early Wednesday, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that could escalate conflict in the region, potentially affecting oil supplies.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which the Palestinian militant group killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage.

U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $2.10 to $76.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up $2.05 to $80.12 per barrel.

Markets were awaiting a policy decision later in the day from the Federal Reserve, with another expected on Thursday from the Bank of England.

Traders expect the Fed to hold off on cutting interest rates when it announces its decision on Wednesday but to go ahead with a rate cut at its next meeting in September.

Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro ticked up to 2.6% in July, a report said Wednesday, stubbornly above the European Central Bank’s target. That complicates the ECB’s next decision on whether to cut interest rates and boost growth as the economy struggles to stage a convincing recovery from more than a year of stagnation.

Germany’s DAX picked up 0.4% to 18,542.50, and the CAC 40 rose 1.2% to 7,564.92. In London, the FTSE was up 1.4% at 8,396.50.