SINGAPORE, Sept. 9 — Asian stock markets traded mixed on Monday, September 7, following broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, September 4, with traders remaining concerned about rising crude oil prices and related global inflationary pressures. The trigger for the risk-off mood was an escalation over the weekend, when reports emerged that the US and Iran exchanged strikes on ships.
That disruption to flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent crude back above $100 a barrel for the first time since July 2026, functioning as what many in the market view as a de facto tax on global growth. Compounding the energy shock, much stronger-than-expected US jobs data for August 2026 has revived fears of tighter monetary policy.
According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the probability that the Federal Reserve raises rates by a quarter point bounced back to 58.4%, after falling below 50% the previous week. Climbing US Treasury yields added to the global inflationary pressure, and traders are now bracing for critical US consumer price inflation data due later this week. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 faced strong headwinds from a rapidly strengthening yen, with export-heavy tech, automakers and inbound tourism-related sectors all under sharp selling pressure.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded lower, its sentiment depressed by a global bond sell-off and consecutive weak corporate debuts. China’s Shanghai Composite held flat or saw marginal gains, benefiting from localized demand and resilient mainland purchasing that offset offshore selling.
South Korea’s KOSPI showed relative resilience, with aggressive AI-driven optimism lifting major memory chipmakers such as SK Hynix and partially offsetting macro energy drags. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded lower as the broad risk-off mood countered gains in basic resource and copper mining equities. The overriding dynamic across the region was a battle between structural tech drivers — semiconductor demand above all — and deep macro anxieties surrounding the conflict with Iran.
Asian markets had closed mostly higher on Friday, September 4, before the weekend’s developments upended the calculus. The US jobs report and foreign trade data were the main economic news from the US in the first week of September, while the Bank of Canada announced its latest policy decision and Eurozone inflation data was the highlight in Europe. In Asia, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s latest interest rate decision drew attention.
For investors, the question now is whether energy-driven inflation forces the Fed’s hand — and how much more pain Asian export markets can absorb before the yen’s climb and oil’s rise take a deeper toll.
