Asia stocks waver as yen surges, Iran warns of retaliation

Asian stocks wavered on Tuesday as the Japanese yen surged, while economic data and Iranian threats in the Persian Gulf fueled higher oil prices and bond yields. Japan’s Nikkei 225 saw a mixed performance, edging up 0.2% after fluctuating between gains and losses. The MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.2%, boosted by a 1.2% increase in the KOSPI. S&P 500 e-mini futures ended the session down 0.1%, following a US holiday on Monday.

Westpac analysts noted that while the US Labor Day provided a less busy start to the week, ongoing tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran continued to push up oil prices, negatively impacting risk sentiment. Brent crude futures climbed 0.04% to $97.04 a barrel, after reaching a six-week high on Monday following Iran's threat to retaliate against new attacks by targeting energy infrastructure in the Gulf, including US oil and gas interests. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond increased by 0.6 basis points to 4.788%.

The US dollar index, which gauges the dollar's strength against six currencies, traded near a two-week low of 98.82. Meanwhile, Japan's economy grew faster than previously estimated in the April-June quarter, driven by business spending, but the figure still trailed analysts' expectations. Japanese real wages rose by 2.4% in July compared to a year ago, marking the largest increase since May 2021.

Capital Economics suggested that the strong wage growth might prompt the Bank of Japan to expedite its tightening measures. In Australia, shares dropped 0.6% after a September measure of local consumer sentiment declined sharply. Gold gained 0.5% to $4,428.23, while bitcoin increased 0.1% to $79,333.01, and ether rose 0.2% to $2,498.94.