{"id":85302,"date":"2026-04-17T17:57:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=85302"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:57:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:57:37","slug":"friday-17th-april-2026-asia-markets-slip-as-middle-east-caution-offsets-wall-street-record-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/friday-17th-april-2026-asia-markets-slip-as-middle-east-caution-offsets-wall-street-record-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday 17th April 2026: Asia Markets Slip as Middle East Caution Offsets Wall Street Record Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.90%, Shanghai Composite down 0.30% Hang Seng down 1.40% ASX down 0.28%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $4,814.96 (0.14%) Silver at $78.978 (0.34%), Brent Oil at $98.21 (-1.20%), WTI Oil at $93.46 (-1.31%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.319, UK 10-year yield at 4.8530, Germany 10-year yield at 3.0319<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) Unemployment Claims&nbsp; 207K to 213K&nbsp; expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Asia-Pacific markets opened lower Friday as cautious optimism over developments in the Middle East tempered investor sentiment, diverging from Wall Street\u2019s record-setting rally. U.S. President Donald Trump said the conflict involving Iran \u201cshould be ending pretty soon,\u201d reinforcing expectations of easing tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier, Trump confirmed that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a 10-day ceasefire starting at 5 p.m. ET. Iran\u2019s parliament speaker noted that Israel halting attacks on Lebanon remains a key condition for potential U.S.-Iran negotiations. Trump also indicated the next round of in-person talks between Washington and Tehran could take place next weekend. Meanwhile, a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire April 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oil prices declined, with West Texas Intermediate falling 1.18% to $93.57 per barrel and Brent crude dropping 0.97% to $98.43. Japan\u2019s export credit agency plans to establish a 600 billion yen ($3.8 billion) investment window to help Asian countries secure energy supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.95% after Thursday\u2019s record high, while the Topix lost 1.10%. South Korea\u2019s Kospi fell 0.23%, Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 dropped 0.49%, and Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng declined 0.54%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overnight, the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq closed at fresh record highs, extending their strong rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211; CAD Foreign Securities Purchases<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Asia-Pacific markets opened lower [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":84958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85303,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302\/revisions\/85303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}