Asian shares slide, oil prices surge after Israel's strike on Iran

Markets in Asia opened lower early Friday while oil prices surged after Israel attacked Iran's capital amid the ramping up tensions over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme.

US benchmark crude oil rose by $5.6, or 8.2 per cent, to $73.61 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, increased by $5.52 to $74.88 per barrel.

In share trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 per cent to 37,721.63 while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.7 per cent lower to 2,900.14.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.4 per cent to 23,929.62 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2 per cent to 3,394.52.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 drifted 0.3 per cent lower to 8,540.80.

An Israeli attack on Iran poses a top ten of our global risk, but Asian markets are expected to recover quickly as they have relatively limited exposure to the conflict and growing ties to unaffected Saudi Arabia and the UAE, said Xu Tiachen of The Economist Intelligence.

On Thursday, US stock indexes ticked higher following another encouraging update on inflation across the country.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to 6,045.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent to 42,967.62, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2 per cent to 19,662.48.

Oracle pushed upward on the market after jumping 13.3 per cent. The tech giant delivered stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and CEO Safra Catz said it expects revenue growth will be dramatically higher in its upcoming fiscal year.

That helped offset a 4.8 per cent loss for Boeing after Air India said a London-bound flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport Thursday with 242 passengers and crew onboard. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area near the airport five minutes after taking off. The cause of the crash wasn't immediately known.

Stocks broadly got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Thursday's update said inflation at the wholesale level wasn't as bad last month as economists expected, and it followed a report on Wednesday saying something similar about the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling.

Wall Street took it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will have more leeway to cut interest rates later this year in order to give the economy a boost.

The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it's been on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it's waiting to see how much President Donald Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35 per cent from 4.41 per cent late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80 per cent early this year.

Besides the inflation data, a separate report on jobless claims also helped to weigh on Treasury yields. It said slightly more US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, and the total number remained at the highest level in eight months. That could be an indication of a rise in layoffs across the country.

We believe that were it not for the uncertainty caused by the tariffs, the combined information coming from the inflation and labor-market data would have compelled the Fed to have resumed cutting its policy rate by now, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

The Fed's next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will stand pat again. Traders are betting it's likely to begin cutting in September, according to data from CME Group.

Trump's on-and-off tariffs have raised worries about higher inflation and a possible recession, which had sent the S&P 500 roughly 20 per cent below its record a couple months ago. But stocks have since rallied nearly all the way back on hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries.

Many of Trump's tariffs are on hold at the moment to give time for negotiations, but Trump added to the uncertainty late Wednesday when he suggested the United States could send letters to other countries at some point saying this is the deal. You can take it or you can leave it.

On Wall Street, Chime Financial jumped 37.4 per cent in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. The technology company is trying to be the main financial hub for customers, connecting them with its bank partners.

GameStop dropped 22.5 per cent after saying it plans to raise $1.75 billion by borrowing at zero interest rates, though the lenders could choose to be repaid in the video-game retailer's stock instead of cash.

In currency trading early Friday, the US dollar fell to 143.10 Japanese yen from 143.46 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.1552 from $1.1590.