Asian stocks waver as yen surges, Iran warns of retaliation
Investors struggle for direction as mixed regional data and fresh Persian Gulf threats push oil prices and bond yields higher.
Asian stocks experienced volatility on Tuesday as the Japanese yen strengthened and oil prices surged, driven by conflicting economic data and renewed threats from Iran in the Persian Gulf. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan saw a mixed performance, edging up 0.2% after fluctuating between gains and losses. MSCI's Asia-Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.2%, led by a 1.2% gain in the KOSPI.
US futures were down slightly, with the S&P 500 e-mini falling 0.1%. The US 10-year Treasury bond yield increased by 0.6 basis points to 4.788%, while the US dollar index hit a two-week low of 98.82. Economically, Japan reported stronger-than-anticipated growth in the April-June quarter, but the figure still fell short of analysts' predictions.
Meanwhile, Japanese real wages rose 2.4% in July, the highest increase since May 2021. Australian shares fell 0.6% amid a sharp decline in consumer sentiment, while gold and bitcoin showed modest gains.
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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