Asian markets slip as oil price surge outweighs strong corporate earnings

Early Tuesday trading saw Asian stock markets retreat, with Japan's one outlet 225 down 1.6% to 68,098.54 and South Korea's Kospi losing 0.6% to 6,933.60, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Shanghai's Composite each slipped around 0.5-0.6%. The pullback was driven by climbing oil prices—U.S. crude rose to $84.84 a barrel and Brent to $91.08—fueling inflation fears that outweighed the optimism from recent strong earnings. BofA Securities analysts Masashi Akutsu and Tetsuhiro Tokuyama noted that AI-driven demand is broadening across industries, supporting Japanese companies' performance.

They also warned that the Bank of Japan may follow the U.S. Federal Reserve in raising interest rates soon. On Wall Street, the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all posted modest declines, reinforcing the global market pressure from higher energy costs.