![Asia-Pacific markets fall as Israel-Iran tensions spike; spotlight on oil, gold and bitcoin 1 Asia-Pacific markets fall as Israel-Iran tensions spike; spotlight on oil, gold and bitcoin](https://rastravani.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Asia-Pacific-markets-fall-as-Israel-Iran-tensions-spike-spotlight-on-oil.jpeg)
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Employees work in the trading room inside the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking head office in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell Monday as traders weighed the impact of Iran’s massive drone and missile attacks on Israel over the weekend, with focus also on key economic data from China and Japan later in the week.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles against military targets in Israel on Saturday in an attack that U.S. President Joe Biden described as “unprecedented.”
The U.S. intervened to directly help Israel shoot down nearly all of the incoming munitions, Biden said in a statement Saturday.
Oil prices were little changed on Monday morning, with Brent crude futures trading 0.14% down at $90.32 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures down 0.32% at $85.39.
India will release its wholesale inflation figures for March later in the day, while China will announce its first-quarter GDP numbers on Tuesday. Japan will release its March trade data and inflation numbers on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.74%, paring some losses, to close at 39,232.8, while the broad-based Topix was down 0.23% at 2,753.2.
South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.47%, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.88%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 saw a smaller loss compared to other Asian markets, falling 0.46% to close at 7,752, declining for a third straight day.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.71% lower, while mainland China’s CSI300 bucked the trend to gain nearly 2%.
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