Rising oil prices following renewed tensions in the Middle East fueled inflation concerns, triggering a broad selloff across Asian equity and fixed-income markets on Tuesday.
The recent exchange of attacks between the U.S. and Iran prompted President Trump to say that the U.S. would "hit them hard." American forces reported striking Iranian launch sites that were preparing to deploy naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. In return, Tehran fired a salvo of missiles at Jordan, which is home to thousands of American troops. All were intercepted.
"The main theme was the renewed escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict," Commerzbank Research analysts said in a note. "The renewed hostilities dashed recent hopes of progress toward normalizing shipping through the strait," the analysts said. Trump "also signaled that Washington was prepared to conduct further attacks," the analysts added.
Sustained tensions in the region have sent global inventories lower. "Crude stocks at sea have fallen and inventories across key product hubs are under pressure, reinforcing concerns around supply availability as the market continues to rely on emergency stock releases," ANZ analysts said.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 1.4% to $86.94 per barrel, while front-month Brent crude oil futures climbed 1.0% to $91.43 a barrel.
Inflation concerns stoked by rising oil prices weighed on most Asia-Pacific equity markets and drove long-dated government bond yields higher.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was recently down 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 1.0% and Singapore's FTSE Straits Times Index was 0.8% lower. China's Shanghai Composite Index bucked the trend, rising 0.2%.
The yield on Japan's 10-year government bonds was up 5.5 basis points to 2.995% after earlier touching 3.000%, the highest intraday level since September 1996. Yields on Australia's 10-year sovereign debt climbed 9 basis points to 5.1620%, while those on New Zealand's 10-year government securities rose 6 basis points to 4.8000%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Meanwhile, spot gold fell on rising expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The non-interest bearing precious metal was last 0.4% lower at $4,431.71 an ounce.