[MARKET ANALYSIS] Asia-Pac stocks are varied amid a mixed performance in tech and despite relief from Trump's cancellation of Iran strikes

APAC Stocks: Mixed/Mostly Negative

• Asia-Pac stocks are mostly lower despite the geopolitical relief from Trump's cancellation of Iran strikes, with a mixed performance in the tech sector, while markets also digest weak Chinese PMI data and confirmation of joint US-Japan intervention on the yen.

ASX 200: -0.1%

• Trades marginally lower with underperformance in energy, real estate and financials, although the downside is stemmed by resilience in defensives.

Nikkei 225: -1.7%

• Retreated amid increased rate hike bets following last week's hawkish comments from BoJ Governor Ueda at the post-meeting press conference, while there are also headwinds from a firmer currency after the US and Japan confirmed they jointly intervened to support the yen on Friday.

KOSPI -4.2%

• Underperforms amid weakness in its tech heavyweights and with participants digesting earnings.

Hang Seng & Shanghai Comp: Hang Seng +0.1% / Shanghai Comp -0.6%

• Chinese markets are mixed amid divergences in the tech sector as hyperscalers advance, with Alibaba shares among today's best performers after launching its Qwen 3.8 Max AI model, while chipmakers are pressured. The mainland is pressured as US-China frictions linger, with MOFCOM stating the US addition of Chinese companies in its forced labour entities list had no factual basis and that US actions disrupt the stability of global supply chains, while participants also digest disappointing Chinese RatingDog Manufacturing PMI data.

US Equity Futures: Positive

• Opened higher with risk supported by President Trump's decision to cancel a massive attack on Iran, subject to making a rapid deal, while he touted a deal on Hormuz with negotiations to begin on Monday afternoon.

European Equity Futures +0.8%

• Indicate a higher cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures up 0.8% after the cash market closed with gains of 0.2% on Friday.

Session wraps of this kind are best decomposed rather than read as a single risk signal, since the drivers here are distinct and do not share a transmission channel. The Nikkei's underperformance follows a familiar template: hawkish signalling from the BoJ Governor compounded by confirmed joint US-Japan yen intervention, a combination that historically pressures exporter-heavy Japanese indices through both the rate-expectation channel and the currency leg, and intervention episodes have tended to produce follow-through verbal signalling from officials in subsequent sessions, which is the tell for whether the yen bid persists. The Korean selloff sits in a different bucket, tech heavyweight earnings digestion rather than macro, and the Chinese divergence between hyperscalers and chipmakers mirrors the established pattern in which US export and entity-list actions split the sector rather than hit it uniformly. The cancellation of strikes on Iran removes a tail that had been priced through crude and gold, and past de-escalation episodes of this kind have tended to see the geopolitical premium bleed out of energy over several sessions rather than gap out, with any announced negotiation track the next checkpoint. Weak Chinese PMI prints in this environment have historically mattered less for Asia than for the commodities complex and the stimulus-expectation trade out of Beijing. Overall the pattern is stock-specific and regional rather than a coordinated risk move, with US and European futures treating the geopolitical relief as the dominant input.