On Thursday, oil futures rose, and Asia-Pacific shares fell as investors monitored the escalating situation between Russia and Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had authorized a military operation in Ukraine in a public address.
On Thursday, US crude futures rose 6.21 percent to $97.82 per barrel in Asia. Brent crude futures rose 6.54 percent to $103.17 per barrel, breaking through the $100 barrier for the first time since 2014.
Spot gold, traditionally a haven in times of uncertainty, rose 1.86 percent to $1,943.10 at the close.
Markets throughout Asia were in the red.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.81 percent to 25,970.82, while the Topix fell 1.25 percent to 1,857.58.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.6 percent to 2,648.80, while the Kosdaq fell 3.32 percent to 848.21. At its meeting on Thursday, the Bank of Korea kept interest rates unchanged at 1.25 percent. However, it forecasts that consumer price inflation will remain “substantially above 3 percent for some time.”
The Shanghai Composite fell 1.7 percent to 3,429.96 in mainland China, while the Shenzhen component fell 2.2 percent to 13,252.24. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 3.6 percent in late trade. SenseTime Group shares fell around 11% after Hang Seng Indexes announced that it’s weighting in the Hang Seng Tech index in March would be 0.24 percent, down from 3.94 percent.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 2.99 percent to 6,990.6, with banks, miners, and oil stocks leading the way.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 3.45%.
Alibaba will report its third-quarter earnings late in Asia in terms of profits.
Russia-Ukraine Crisis
Concerns about escalating tensions in Russia and Ukraine remain prominent.
Ukraine declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, with the option of extending it for another 30 days. Parliament must first approve the measure. The country also advised its citizens to avoid traveling to Russia. This week, Putin declared that Moscow would formally recognize the independence of two pro-Moscow breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Russian state-controlled media reported on Wednesday that Moscow had begun evacuating people from its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
On Wall Street, the three major indexes fell further overnight. The S&P 500 fell 1.8 percent and entered a deeper bear market, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.38 percent to 33,131.76. The Nasdaq Composite, which focuses on technology, fell 2.6 percent to 13,037.49.
