Asian benchmarks mostly rise despite ongoing worries about Iran war

TOKYO — Asian shares rose in early Wednesday trading, boosted by optimism about artificial intelligence and computer chips despite ongoing worries about the war in Iran.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.3% in morning trading to 66,318.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9% to 8,791.30. South Korea’s Kospi lost earlier gains to be little changed, up less than 0.1% at 6,875.84. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 24,551.47, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,843.26.

SoftBank Group Corp., which invests in OpenAI, surged about 6% in Tokyo morning trading. Also gaining were Japanese chip-related stocks like Renesas Electronics and Rohm Co.

Stocks closed modestly lower on Wall Street on Tuesday as another increase in long-term Treasury yields weighed on the market.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% after wavering between modest gains and losses for much of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.

Major indexes shifted lower after a quiet morning as rising bond yields undercut much of the heavy lifting being done by several technology behemoths. Nvidia, the market’s most influential stock, gave up an early gain and closed 0.7% lower. Broadcom rose 1.6%.

Oil prices are swinging sharply as the U.S. war with Iran drags on, helping push Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 0.23% to $89.59 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged up 0.87% to $103.48 a barrel. Brent is well above the roughly $72 it cost before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mediators continued to work with the United States and Iran on reaching a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump over the weekend rejected an offer from Tehran to reopen the key waterway.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.25% from 5.24% late Monday. It reached 5.28% earlier Tuesday, touching its highest level since 2002, according to Tradeweb.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 12.85 points to 7,670.84. The Dow dropped 131.59 points to 51,349.92, and the Nasdaq gave up 22.84 points to close at 26,797.54.

Wall Street will see several big economic updates this week that could help investors and the Federal Reserve get a better sense of where inflation is headed.

U.S. inflation rates have remained stubbornly above 3% most of the year, well above the Fed’s target rate of 2%. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate again at its next meeting in October.

“While it is easy to focus on the macroeconomic headwinds of bond yields and oil, the underlying U.S. economy remains remarkably resilient,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at MooMoo, a global financial technology and online brokerage company.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 156.75 Japanese yen from 157.27 yen. The euro cost $1.1335, down from $1.1347.