Asian shares opened lower on November 3 as investors weighed concerns about technology spending and earnings ahead of US midterm voting. Oil, by contrast, steadied after a steep fall the previous day, then edged higher as reports of a US strike on Iran renewed worries about supply disruption.
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Asian stocks: early losses deepened
In the initial trading snapshot, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.9%, while South Korean shares fell as much as 3.8%.
8 The Hang Seng was slightly higher, up 0.3%, and Japan’s market was closed for a holiday.
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Those early figures did not capture the full extent of the subsequent pressure. A later Reuters report put the regional index’s decline at 1.4% and South Korean shares’ fall at as much as 4.1%; Taiwanese shares were down 3.6%.
1 The different figures reflect distinct reporting snapshots as losses developed during the trading day.
Technology stocks were at the center of the weakness. Investors were concerned about AI spending and earnings, while Apple warned that higher memory costs would squeeze gross margins. Its shares fell about 4% in premarket trading.
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Oil steadied after a sharp drop, then ticked up
Brent crude settled at $104.77 a barrel on Monday, down 7.63%, after reports of peace-talk mediation between the US and Iran raised hopes of progress.
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2 Prices stabilized in early Asian trading the next day. Reports of a US strike on Iran’s Qeshm Island then prompted a modest rebound: Brent was up 48 cents, or 0.5%, at $105.25 a barrel in early trading.
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The reversal reflected competing risks: optimism about diplomacy had helped drive the previous session’s sell-off, while renewed military escalation raised concerns about longer-lasting disruption to Middle Eastern oil supplies.
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Election uncertainty kept investors cautious
Markets were awaiting the US midterm results, and investors also had the US Treasury’s quarterly refunding announcement ahead. ING analysts described the day as a pause before investors gained more information about the election and the refunding plans.
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The market picture was therefore mixed: the immediate pressure on Asian shares came from technology-sector worries, while election uncertainty and oil’s abrupt turn from a steep decline to a small rebound gave investors more developments to assess.