[MARKET UPDATE] Asia-Pac stocks begin lower following the weak lead from the US, where tech led the downside as yields remain elevated and the Hormuz stalemate continues

Session-open handoffs of this kind follow a familiar sequence: Asia takes its cue from the prior US close, with the magnitude of the spillover typically tracking how concentrated the US move was in index-heavy tech, since that is where regional benchmarks in Japan, Korea and Taiwan carry their largest overlap. The distinction worth drawing is between a rates-driven and a risk-driven lead: when the US leg is led by elevated yields rather than credit or growth fear, the transmission runs through the discount-rate channel into long-duration equities, and Asia's own bond opens and the dollar's tone against the yen tend to confirm or fade it within the first hours. The Hormuz reference signals a geopolitical risk premium still sitting in crude and freight rather than an active escalation, a stalemate state that historically sustains an energy bid and periodic haven flows without forcing a broader de-risking until shipping or insurance conditions actually change. The interplay between the two drivers matters: higher-for-longer yields and an oil risk premium pull in the same direction on inflation expectations, which in past episodes has compounded pressure on the growth complex. Follow-ons that have resolved similar sessions include whether the regional selling stays confined to tech or broadens into financials and cyclicals, and how European cash opens treat the inherited weakness. As a session recap rather than a discrete event, the note carries signal only insofar as the drivers persist.