Oil Eases, Asian Equities Mixed as Mideast Tensions Show Signs of Cooling — Update

By Kimberley Kao and Sherry Qin

Oil prices declined and Asian equities were mixed after President Trump said the U.S. won't attack Iran before the November midterm elections.

Iran has ramped up its attacks on commercial tankers seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, putting pressure on the U.S. to respond to the growing aggression.

But the upward pressure on crude eased in a wake of a Truth Social post Thursday, where Trump said: "We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd. IRAN WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!" The president cited "productive discussions" with Tehran.

Oil pulled back in Asian trade Friday after rising sharply overnight. Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 1.4% to $90.24 a barrel, while front-month Brent crude oil futures declined 1.4% to $102.76 a barrel, according to ICE data.

Despite the Trump comment, "the prospect of easing tensions still needs to be reinforced by concrete progress in negotiations and improvements in shipping safety through the Strait of Hormuz," said Linh Tran, a market analyst at XS.com.

According to the IEA, approximately 100 million barrels already pledged by its members' reserves have yet to reach the market.

These additional volumes could help ease near-term supply tightness, but the extent of that relief will depend on the actual pace of releases and the restoration of supply flows from producing regions, Tran said.

Spot gold rose as oil prices eased and was last up 1.3% at $4,186.79 a troy ounce.

Regional equity markets were mixed.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average edged 0.1% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.65%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 1.3%. Markets in South Korea and Taiwan were closed.

Artificial intelligence- and chip-related stocks declined in China and Hong Kong, tracking the selloff for their U.S. peers as concerns over the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending resurfaced.

AI investments are now so massive and are approaching major and hard limits that can't be simply explained by supply and demand, Bernstein analysts said in a note. Rising borrowing costs, increasing safety and environmental concerns as well as regulatory guardrails could trigger a deceleration in semiconductor demand, they added.

Maybank analysts said the Trump administration's move to suspend several tech companies, including Microsoft, from sponsoring workers for permanent U.S. residency also weighed on sentiment.

Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor fell 4.7% and Montage Technology lost 2.3%. In Shanghai, CXMT dropped 2.2% and MetaX Integrated Circuits shed 3.7%.

Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 09, 2026 02:16 ET (06:16 GMT)