HONG KONG (AP) — Markets across Asia delivered mixed results Wednesday, with oil prices holding below $80 per barrel as investors monitored developments around an interim agreement between the United States and Iran aimed at ending the war between the two countries.
U.S. futures moved slightly upward ahead of the Federal Reserve’s scheduled interest rate announcement, following a mixed close on Wall Street that left major indexes hovering near record territory.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.8%, reaching 69,926.08 — close to its all-time high recorded earlier this week. The gains came after government figures revealed Japanese exports surged 17% in May compared to the same month last year, driven partly by strong overseas demand for high-tech goods.
South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.2% to 8,706.10, weighed down by losses among major technology companies following a broader sell-off of artificial intelligence-related stocks on Wall Street. Samsung Electronics, the nation’s most valuable publicly traded company, dropped 1.9%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 0.8% to 24,273.95, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.1% to 4,089.26. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 8,965.30. Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.5%, while India’s Sensex gained 0.3%.
Crude oil prices found some footing after a steep drop earlier in the week, fueled by hopes that the war could be winding down and that the Strait of Hormuz — a critical passageway for global oil and gas shipments — might reopen. However, complications remain, including whether any peace deal will require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, slipped 0.3% to $78.76 a barrel in early Wednesday trading, having already tumbled more than 5% on Tuesday. Despite the recent drop, prices remain elevated compared to the roughly $70-per-barrel level seen in late February before the conflict began.
U.S. benchmark crude fell 0.4% to $75.78 a barrel.
Economists at HSBC cautioned that a return to normal oil flows won’t happen overnight. “Normalizing (oil) flows will take time,” they wrote in a note this week. “Hurdles include mine clearance, insurance reinstatement, emptying excess Gulf oil storage, repositioning ships, and restarting idled production fields.”
Back in the United States, the Federal Reserve kicked off a two-day meeting on Tuesday — the first chaired by new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh — to deliberate on interest rates, with an announcement expected Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has been publicly pushing for rate cuts to give the U.S. economy a boost, but concerns are growing that inflation could worsen due to the energy price shock tied to the Iran war.
Most analysts expect the Fed to leave its benchmark rate unchanged for now. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to below 4.44%, down from 4.47% late Monday.
Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar, offered a measured outlook in a recent commentary. “With weak wage growth and rent growth, underlying forces are pointing to inflation falling sharply once the energy price shock recedes. We don’t expect the Fed to hike rates in 2026,” he wrote.
On Tuesday, Wall Street’s S&P 500 slid 0.6% to 7,511.35 after reaching an all-time high earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend, adding 0.6% to close at 51,999.67 — another record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 1.2% to 26,376.34 as several major technology stocks fell amid renewed fears of an AI market bubble.
Nvidia shares fell 2.4%, chipmaker Broadcom dropped 4.4%, and Micron Technology lost 6.2%.
On the upside, SpaceX — the rocket company founded by Elon Musk — climbed 4.8%, marking its third consecutive day of gains since making its Wall Street debut.
Yum Brands rose 1.9% after announcing plans to sell Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion, with the majority of the restaurant locations being acquired by private equity firm LongRange Capital.
In currency markets early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar slipped to 160.30 Japanese yen from 160.42 yen. The euro edged up to $1.1612 from $1.1608.
