Singapore, May 26, 2026, 15:10 (SGT)
- Asia’s main index ticked up. Hong Kong chips rose. Japan, Australia, Shanghai and India fell.
- Brent crude climbed more than 2% after new U.S. strikes in Iran put a damper on talk of a fast peace agreement.
- Hong Kong tech stocks got a lift from Huawei’s chip announcements, while Beijing’s clampdown on cross-border securities trading stayed on the sidelines.
Asia stocks traded mixed on Tuesday. Oil surged after new U.S. strikes in Iran hit hopes for a quick peace deal, but a sharp move higher in Chinese chip stocks propped up Hong Kong and kept it from sliding with other markets. MSCI’s broad Asia-Pacific index outside Japan added 0.67%. Japan’s Nikkei fell and mainland China edged lower.
Investors had been betting on a smoother ride for energy prices, inflation, and rates if the Strait of Hormuz opened again. That has changed. Brent crude traded up 2.39% at $98.44 a barrel on delayed LSEG data. Prices at this level add strain for oil importers and central banks that are still dealing with inflation.
Nikkei dropped 0.25% to 64,996.09. Australia’s All Ordinaries shed 0.37%. Shanghai Composite off 0.26%. Hang Seng in Hong Kong bucked the trend, rising 0.37% to 25,699.64. India’s Sensex slipped 0.11% to 76,408.07, per LSEG.
U.S. forces hit targets in southern Iran in what Washington called a defensive action. At the same time, Iranian officials were in Doha with Qatar for talks tied to a possible deal with the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it could “take a few days” to negotiate an agreement, pushing back on hopes for a quick end to the three-month-old war. Reuters
Joseph Capurso, strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said he was “a bit sceptical” about when the Strait of Hormuz might reopen and what kind of deal will come out. He said markets want to believe the war is ending, but noted that global inventories have limits. Reuters
The dollar held its ground with investors looking for safety. The euro slipped to around $1.163. The yen stuck close to 159 per dollar. The dollar index was at 99.031.
Bond markets showed less reaction than oil. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.508%, dropping 0.064 point in late data. Even so, rates were sending the same inflation warning—higher oil for longer could keep policymakers from cutting rates.
Chip names supported the Hong Kong market. Huawei Technologies said Monday it is aiming for chipmaking with transistor density like 1.4-nanometre by 2031 but didn’t offer any third-party data to show performance. He Hui, Omdia’s director of semiconductor research, called it a move to “system-level efficiency scaling” to find more performance if there’s a lithography crunch. Reuters
That move puts Huawei back in the global race with Taiwan’s TSMC and Nvidia out of the U.S. Reuters says TSMC now uses 2-nm tech and aims to start 1.4-nm mass production in 2028. Huawei’s Ascend chips are seeing higher demand in China as local buyers look for options to Nvidia processors that can’t be sold there.
Hong Kong stocks kept some pressure from regulatory headlines. Last week, China said it would sanction brokers like Tiger, Futu and Longbridge over suspected illegal money transfers offshore, and clients hit by the probe now face a two-year wind-down where they can only sell or pull money, not buy. “Beijing wants to keep a closer eye on capital flows leaving the country,” said Gary Ng, senior Asia Pacific economist at Natixis. Reuters
Nifty 50 and Sensex were flat to slightly higher in early trade, swinging between small gains and losses as traders watched crude oil prices and upcoming derivatives expiry. “Investor optimism over a U.S.-Iran peace deal has been tempered by fresh U.S. strikes in the Middle East,” said Devarsh Vakil, head of prime research at HDFC Securities. Reuters
Samsung Electronics’ union for consumer electronics employees went to court to try to stop a vote on a pay deal that mostly supports chip workers, despite last week’s pact that avoided an 18-day strike. Samsung’s shares climbed 2.7% in early trade, but they still trailed SK Hynix, which is up 19% since the agreement.
Market bets are riding on headlines that could snap back fast. Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo in Singapore, warned investors not to mistake “positive negotiation noise” for real progress. “The real test,” she said, is if tankers move freely, insurance costs drop and energy flows return to normal. Reuters
Asia isn’t seeing a broad risk-off yet. It’s a split tape, with chips showing optimism, while oil and inflation are still weighing on trade.
