(Updates after Trump's address)

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, April 2 (Reuters) - Stocks fell, the dollar

firmed and oil rose on Thursday after U.S. President Donald

Trump said Washington's "core strategic objectives" in the Iran

war were nearing completion but stopped short of providing a

clear outline of when the conflict would end.

The prospect of the end to the month-long U.S.-Israeli war

with Iran has lifted global stocks and knocked the dollar off

its recent highs in the past two sessions after a brutal March

where soaring oil prices sent risk assets into a tailspin.

But Trump, in his prime-time speech, said the U.S. will

strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks

and hit the country into the "Stone Ages."

That sent stocks retreating, with U.S. stock futures

down 0.67% while European futures were 0.1% lower.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

slid 0.75%. Japan's Nikkei reversed

course to trade down 0.79% in volatile trading.

Analysts and investors were focusing on when and how the

Strait of Hormuz, a major fuel shipment route, would reopen and

ease the bottleneck in supply that has hit Asian economies

hard.

Iran has fired repeatedly on Gulf countries, some home to

U.S. bases, and is using the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a

fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, as leverage.

Higher energy prices in March stoked fears of global

inflation with worries about slowing growth also sapping

sentiment.

The U.S. dollar has been the haven of choice among investors

during the tumult and the greenback rose against most currencies

after the speech.

The euro weakened 0.25% to $1.156. The front-month

Brent contract for June rose over 3% to $104.75 per

barrel.