
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly lower in Asia and U.S. futures also declined Monday on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve may raise interest rates soon.
Oil prices surged about 3% after U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz, marking their first military action in a month. The Trump administration just days earlier had shifted its focus to economic pressure, and a return to open conflict would be dangerous for the region.
Brent crude, the international standard, was up 2.9% at $90.61 per barrel early Monday. U.S. benchmark crude oil jumped 2.7% to $85.66 per barrel.
“The Middle East had finally gone quiet enough for oil traders to start sanding some of the war premium out of crude. Then Sunday arrived, with a reminder that quiet in the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as peace,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Markets in Asia fell following a speech Friday by Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh that reinforced expectations the U.S. central bank will do what is needed, such as raising rates, to bring inflation down despite possible short-term pain for the economy.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% to 66,164.66, while the Kospi in South Korea declined 0.5% to 6,757.67.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4% to 25,479.52 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 3,967.94.
Shares in e-commerce and fast fashion giant Shein are due to begin trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday in the city’s biggest initial public offering this year, part of a trend toward big Chinese-founded companies raising funds in Chinese markets.
An official survey released Monday showed Chinese factory activity remained in contraction for a second straight month in August, though there were slight improvements in some areas such as new export orders and production.
Elsewhere in the region, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 9,076.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.4% and the Sensex in India slipped 0.6%.
On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Dow industrials dipped by less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%.
In what is seen as a big move for the bond market, the yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations about Fed moves, jumped to 4.35% from 4.22% just before Warsh’s speech at an annual economic symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Worries had grown that his tough talk about getting inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target may be just that. The Fed could hike short-term interest rates to get price increases under control, but it could also be reluctant to do so because that would slow the economy and hurt prices for investments.





