Mount Fuji and the Shinjuku skyline in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher on Wednesday as investors assessed the ongoing Middle East war.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.35% in early trade.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was poised to climb, with the Chicago futures contract at 54,855 and the Osaka contract at 54,870, compared with the index’s previous close of 54,248.39.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 25,936 compared with the index’s last close of 25,959.9.
Oil prices, which spiked to nearly $120 a barrel Monday at the height of fear around the Iran conflict, dropped from their height as traders believed a group of countries would tap emergency crude reserves to mitigate disruption caused by the conflict.
U.S. crude oil was last up 3.24% at $86.15 per barrel.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 fell slightly in choppy trading as oil prices pulled back and traders kept an eye on the Iran war.
The broad market index dropped 0.21% to end at 6,781.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 34.29 points, or 0.07%, and closed at 47,706.51. The Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.01% to settle at 22,697.10.
Earlier in the session, the Dow had dropped as much as 296.57 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, at their lows.