Asia-Pacific markets trade higher as investors weigh developments in the Middle East

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Mount Fuji and the Shinjuku skyline in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Asia-Pacific markets opened 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 jumped 1.36%, while the Topix added 1.22%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.52%, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.39%.

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.

“The most immediate impact of an oil shock is that it acts like a tax on the economy. When energy prices surge, households spend more on fuel and utilities and less on everything else, which quietly slows consumer demand across the broader economy,” said David Johnson, CEO of financial services firm Vervent.

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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.

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