Asian Markets Bleed as the Nikkei Leads Losses

The Asian and Pacific Rim markets were all falling lower during the Monday Asian trade session. Regional, and global, traders are unnerved as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have skyrocketed after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general in Iraq.

The Japanese benchmark, the Nikkei 225, was leading area losses by lunchtime. Shares in Japan were down over two percent. The broader Topix index, in Tokyo, was down 1.77 percent.

Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi composite index was down one percent. Elsewhere in the Asian and Pacific Rim, the Australian S&P ASX 200 lost 0.45 percent.

The heavily weighted banking sub-index, on the ASX 200, was down 1.23 percent as shares of the country’s major banks all fell lower. The energy sub-sector, thanks to oil prices, rose 1.15 percent.

On the mainland, in China, the Shanghai composite was up a fraction of a percent. The Shenzhen composite rose 0.17 percent and the Shenzhen component was up 0.32 percent as Chinese markets bucked the regional downtrend.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index was down 0.94 percent by the afternoon.

Asian Sentiment Sours on Middle East Tension between the U.S. and Iran

Oil prices and gold all spiked higher after news broke that the United States had killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Iraq at the end of last week.

Iran has just announced, overnight, that they are abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal. European countries including France, the United Kingdom and Germany have warned Iran against do that.

Looking at the economic calendar, there are retail sales numbers from Germany scheduled during the European trade session. Analysts are expecting retail sales to come in at 1.1 percent from the -1.9 percent seen in November.

There are also a number of Eurozone purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) from various member states including the United Kingdom on the schedule today. Canada also has monthly RMPI data on the calendar.

The United States, during the North American trade session, will publish their final services purchasing managers’ index.