Stocks in Asia slid on Tuesday while oil prices eased but remained well above US$100 a barrel as the United States and Iran continue to work towards a truce while at the same time trading blows over the Strait of Hormuz.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened down 150 points, or 0.6 percent, at 25,945.

The China enterprises index was 38 points, or 0.4 percent, lower at 8,736 while the tech index was 27 points, or 0.5 percent, down at 4,949.

Traders also had their eyes on the yen after the Japanese currency briefly jumped in the previous session, stoking speculation of another ⁠round of intervention from Tokyo.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 percent. Shares in Australia fell 0.4 percent in thinned Asia trade, while markets in the mainland, Japan and South Korea were closed for a holiday.

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures edged down about 0.1 percent each, while Eurostoxx 50 futures lost 0.2 percent and FTSE futures fell 0.75 percent.

The losses came after the United States and Iran launched new attacks in the Gulf on Monday as they wrestled for control over the Strait of Hormuz with duelling maritime blockades, not long after US President Donald Trump launched a new effort to get stranded tankers and other ships through the vital energy-trade chokepoint.

Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a US-flagged vehicle carrier operated by its Farrell Lines subsidiary, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by US military assets ⁠on Monday.

Still, the renewed hostilities jolted markets and served as a stark reminder that the war in the ⁠Middle East was far from over.

"We started yesterday ⁠with high hopes that operation 'Project Freedom' would be, I guess, a success on the ground, that it was being pitched as more of a humanitarian effort," said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.

"But as we saw, the Iranians weren't ⁠taking that bait at all... It really signifies that the stalemate remains ‌in place, it's been a very shaky start."

In oil markets, Brent crude futures fell 0.5 percent to US$113.85 a barrel while US crude slid 1.3 percent to US$105, having jumped in the previous session on heightened worries about supply disruption.

Geopolitics ‌aside, investors were also bracing for earnings reports this week, with Advanced Micro Devices and Pfizer among those set to release results later in the day.

Data from S&P ⁠Global Market Intelligence showed 83 percent of S&P 500 companies that have already reported have beaten EPS estimates and 78.2 percent of them have beaten revenue estimates.

"With no signs of slowing down, AI-driven spending will likely continue to do the heavy lifting for S&P 500 earnings growth, led by the technology sector," said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial. (Reuters & Xinhua)



Edited by Azam Khan