Asian shares decline, while oil pops above $100 a barrel over Iran war worries

HONG KONG (AP) — Asia shares retreated on Friday while oil prices again popped above $100 per barrel as anxiety remained over the Iran war and its impact on supplies of crude oil and gas.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 1.2% to 53,819.61. Technology-related stocks saw some of the bigger losses, with SoftBank Group falling 4.5%.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.7% to 5,487.24.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1% to 25,450.78, while the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.8% at 4,095.45.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,617.10.

Taiwan’s Taiex was trading 0.5% lower, and India’s Sensex dropped 1.8%.

U.S. futures were trading lower. The future for the S&P 500 was down 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.

Oil prices held steady. Brent crude, the international standard, was at $102 per barrel Friday. It topped $100 Thursday, days after jumping to near $120 earlier this week. Benchmark U.S. crude was up 1.3% to $96.97 per barrel.

On Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public statements, vowed Iran would keep fighting and continue to use the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for oil and gas transport which has been effectively closed with significant marine traffic disruptions — as leverage against the U.S. and Israel.

Roughly 20% of the world’s oil is estimated to flow through the strait, and attacks on ships in or around the strait have already heightened concerns “over the scale of supply disruption and persistent shipping bottlenecks,” wrote analysts at Mizuho Bank in a commentary.

The remarks from Iran’s new leader came after U.S. President Donald Trump said the war was “very complete,” which have raised worries over how much longer the tensions could last.

Oil prices have been volatile since the Iran war began. While the International Energy Agency said Wednesday its members would make a record 400 million barrels of oil available from their emergency reserves, some economists believe that would do little to reassure markets.

Global inflation will likely worsen as oil prices jump, and rising fuel costs are already starting to hurt consumers globally. Rising energy prices could also, for example, push up AI and chip development and production costs, some analysts say.

Wall Street recorded losses Thursday following volatile swings this month. On Thursday, the S&P 500 dropped 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%. The Nasdaq composite shed 1.8%.

Shares at some of the companies heavily reliant on fuel costs saw bigger drops. Cruise-ship operator Carnival fell 7.9%, and United Airlines sank 4.6%.

In other dealings early Friday, gold and silver prices fell. The price of gold was down 0.5% to $5,099.40 an ounce, and the price of silver dropped 2.3% to $83.16 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar rose to 159.39 Japanese yen from 159.34 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1497, down from $1.1512.