Asia markets set to track Wall Street losses as Iran war fuels risk-off sentiment

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Asia-Pacific markets were set to fall Friday following volatile trading on Wall Street overnight as investors sold assets from government bonds to equities and metals amid the Iran war.

Tehran attacked the world’s largest gas plant in Qatar, causing damage to the energy supply for the next several years, in retaliation against Israel’s strikes on its South Pars gas field. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said the Iranian attacks had wiped out 17% of the country’s LNG export capacity for three to five years.

The tit-for-tat attacks on key oil and gas infrastructures across the Middle East sent energy prices soaring.

U.S. natural gas prices were last seen 1.5% higher, trading at $3.112 per million British thermal units. Front-month Nymex RBOB gasoline for April delivery, meanwhile, rose almost 1% to $3.13 and hit a nearly four-year high.

International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.18% to end at $108.65 per barrel Thursday, after crossing $119 earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures dropped 0.19% to $96.14.

The market fallout from the regional war also extended to metals, with gold and silver shedding around 5% and 10% respectively before paring losses.

Signaling efforts at cooling tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was not deploying ground troops and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that Israel would refrain from repeating attacks on Iranian energy facilities.

U.S.-aligned countries, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Japan issued a joint statement expressing “our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait” of Hormuz.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.27% in early Asia trade.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was poised to fall, with the Chicago contract at 53,130 and the futures contract in Osaka at 53,090, compared to the index’s previous close of 53,372.53.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 25,312, compared with the index’s last close of 25,500.

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Futures tied to the 30-stock index were up 111 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures gained roughly 0.3%, and Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.2%, after Wall Street fell ovenight.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.44% to 46,021.43 points. The S&P 500 fell 0.27% to end the session at 6,606.49 points, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 0.28% to 22,090.69.

The Federal Reserve kept the interest rate unchanged earlier this week, with Chair Jerome Power cautioning that the economic outlook remains uncertain as hostilities continued in the Middle East.

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