Oil ‌prices crept higher and bond yields rose, blunting paltry gains for stocks at the start of Asian trading on Tuesday as a US-Iran truce expired and Tehran said it would shift to a "fully offensive" military posture.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index opened down 84 points, or 0.33 percent, at 25,368 before losses doubled to put the benchmark 197 points, or 0.78 percent, lower at 25,255 in early trading.

The tech index was down 13 points, or 0.28 percent, at 4,768 while the China enterprises index was 24 points, or 0.29 percent, lower at 8,415.

Up north, the Shanghai Composite Index opened down three points, or less than 0.1 percent, at 3,979.

The Shenzhen Component Index opened down 12 points, or less than 0.1 percent, at 14,692 while the ChiNext Index opened down nine points, or 0.25 percent, at 3,730.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei opened 372 points, or 0.54 percent, at 68,847 before its losses hit 858 points, or 1.24 percent, to put the 225 benchmark at 68,363 at one stage before lunch.

In Seoul, the Kospi edged down to be 104 points, or 1.5 percent, up at 7,082 at one stage before midday after opening 149 points, or 2 percent, higher at 7,127.

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was up 0.8 basis points at 4.728 percent. Its 30-year counterpart traded up 0.6 basis points at 5.3146 percent, its highest in more than two decades.

"Typically, moves above 4.65 percent ⁠for the US 10-year have been followed by some soothing words ⁠from the Trump administration, typically centred ⁠on an imminent resolution to the war with Iran," ING analysts wrote.

"This time, we're not hearing the same. In fact, the ⁠latest indications are for no imminent resolution ‌as the shaky 60-day truce came to an end."

As the recent global selloff in bonds deepened, the yield ‌on the 10-year Japanese government bond rose 2.5 basis points to 2.945 percent, a three-decade high.

Overnight on ⁠Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.5 percent while the Nasdaq Composite edged 0.3 percent lower as soft US economic data, including an unexpected drop in retail sales, prompted markets to scale back bets on an ‌imminent Federal Reserve interest rate move.

"Markets adopted a generally risk-off tone as President Trump reaffirmed he was not interested in extending the truce with Iran, with renewed tensions in the Middle East pushing oil prices higher and complicating sentiment," Westpac analysts wrote ⁠in a ‌research note.

The US dollar index, which measures the ‌greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, traded around a two-month low of 99.527.

Oil prices rose more than US$2 on ‌Monday as the stalemate in Iran refocused oil traders on global supply worries. Brent crude futures edged up 0.2 percent to US$91 a barrel as trading resumed in Asia. (Reuters & Xinhua)


Edited by Edmond Fong