Stocks jumped in Japan, South Korea and Australia, helping the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index rise 2.2%, a sharp reversal after tumbling 3.7% on Monday. Roughly six stocks advanced for every one that declined in the index. Wall Street gauges also reversed their earlier losses to finish the session on a bullish note as tech shares rallied.
The optimistic shift came as Trump said the war with Iran would resolve “very soon.” The president said that he did not believe the conflict would be over this week, but insisted the operation was ahead of schedule. The US military objectives could be described as “pretty well complete,” he said.
Brent crude fell 10% to $89.06 a barrel, well off the peak of $119.50 hit in Monday’s session. Other markets also reversed their moves. Yields on the 10-year Treasury halted a five-day increase and the dollar extended losses made in the New York session.
The moves show how sensitive markets remain to every turn in the Middle East conflict, with a single headline enough to send traders scrambling. Cross-asset volatility showed little sign of easing — with a market risk indicator hovering near levels seen when Trump unveiled global tariffs last year — as investors grapple with a fast-moving geopolitical conflict that offers no clear trading playbook.
“What we’re seeing now is more of a relief rally after an extreme risk-off episode, rather than a genuine shift back into a full risk-on environment,” said Dilin Wu, a research strategist at Pepperstone Group.
Even so, equity-index futures on US benchmarks slipped in early Asian trading, signaling the rebound may not hold. Contracts for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were down 0.2%, having pared losses of as much as 0.6%.Trump’s comments at press conferences “haven’t been the most informative signal,” so investors would well remain skeptical, Eric Van Nostrand, a chief investment officer at Lazard Asset Management said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
“There’s a lot of misplaced confidence in markets right now that things will ease quickly as they have in previous episodes of elevated Middle Eastern tensions,” he said. “But I do think what we are seeing today, given the likely duration of closure of the Strait of Hormuz, is something quite different. It is going to affect the global economy really in a very meaningful and global way.”
