Sunset at Shinjuku , Tokyo – Japan.
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell in choppy trade on Tuesday, as investors assessed the Israel-Iran conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump urged “everyone” to immediately evacuate Tehran. The president subsequently left the Group of Seven summit a day earlier due to the Middle East crisis.
Fitch Ratings said that a spillover from the conflict “appears to be within the range that can be absorbed at Israel’s ‘A’/Negative rating level.”
“The fighting will remain contained between Israel and Iran, and will not persist for more than a few weeks,” the ratings agency’s analysts wrote in a Monday note.
Similarly, Samy Chaar, chief economist and CIO Switzerland at Lombard Odier said the confrontation between the two countries look very much controlled so far, despite “market jitters” in commodity prices.
For now, he sees “no sign of an irreversible escalation.”
“That said, even without an escalation in the conflict, lingering uncertainty and structurally higher energy costs retain the potential to slow economic growth and push inflation higher,” Chaar wrote in a Tuesday note.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.59% while the broader Topix index advanced 0.34%, after the Bank of Japan expectedly stood pat on interest rates at 0.5%, as growth risks loom. The central bank also said it would slow the pace of government bond purchases from next April.
In South Korea, the Kospi index was flat while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.53%.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index dipped 0.15%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.13%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark fell 0.14% in its final hour.
Meanwhile, India’s Nifty 50 was seen 0.27% lower, while the BSE Sensex index declined by 0.37%.
U.S. stock futures fell in Asian hours as investors continued to assess the developments around the Israel-Iran conflict.
Overnight stateside, all three key benchmarks rose on hopes for a positive resolution to the Middle East conflict.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.30 points, or 0.75%, closing at 42,515.09. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 advanced 0.94% to end at 6,033.11, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.52% and settled at 19,701.21.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Alex Harring contributed to this report.
