[MARKET ANALYSIS] Asia-Pac stocks declined amid tech woes and recent geopolitical escalation

APAC Stocks: Negative

• Asia-Pac stocks are mostly in the red following the weak lead from the US, where risk sentiment was weighed on by tech selling and geopolitical escalation, while US-Iran strikes persisted for the third consecutive night and US President Trump announced to reinstate the naval blockade on Iran, as well as touted a 20% Hormuz shipping fee.

ASX 200: -0.5%

• Index is dragged lower by weakness in tech, industrials, consumer staples and financials, but with the downside stemmed by resilience in energy and utilities, while there was also an improvement in Westpac Consumer Sentiment.

Nikkei 225: -1.1%

• Suffered and returned to below the 67,000 level amid tech weakness and higher oil prices.

KOSPI -5.0%

• Underperforms as SK Hynix continues its post-US IPO slide.

Hang Seng & Shanghai Comp: Hang Seng -1.0% / Shanghai Comp -1.0%

• Chinese markets conform to the tech-related weakness and have failed to benefit from the better-than-expected Chinese trade data.

US Equity Futures: Lower

• Continued to decline as the US-Iran geopolitical escalation persisted, and with participants awaiting the start of earnings season.

European Equity Futures -1.1%

• Indicate a lower cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures down 1.1% after the cash market closed flat on Monday.