Japanese equities are set to decline following global peers as oil surged as the conflict in the Middle East escalates and as US employment stoked concerns about growth.
Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures were at 52,220.00 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as of 8:16 am Tokyo time, compared with the underlying gauge’s close of 55,620.84 on Friday. Oil surged above $110 a barrel as more major producers curbed production and US equity futures slumped.
This comes as the conflict nears a one-week mark with Iran, with concerns about a prolonged war. Iran picked a new supreme leader and kept up attacks on several countries on the ninth day of the war in the Middle East. Arab states across the Persian Gulf continued to face incoming missiles and drones from Iran, which said it had the capacity to sustain the war for months.
“The reported next leader of Iran is someone US President Donald Trump finds unacceptable, and there is no clear path toward a resolution in sight,” said Shoji Hirakawa, chief global strategist at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory Co. “Japanese equities had been outperforming US stocks since the start of the year, which makes them more vulnerable to declines given how much they had already risen.”
Sentiment was further soured as government payrolls report from the US showed that employers unexpectedly cut jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose. The nonfarm payrolls fell last month, one of the largest declines since the pandemic.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
