Oil prices and the CBOE Volatility Index jumped overnight as Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel.was trading more than 6% higher Wednesday after returning from a public holiday on Tuesday, signaling further optimism about Beijing's stimulus policies.
Markets in mainland China were closed Wednesday and will remain closed for the rest of the week due to the Golden Week holiday. China stocks rallied Monday to theirafter Beijing announced a raft of stimulus measures last week, including interest-rate cuts, cutting reserve requirements for banks and providing more liquidity to investors.
Overall, Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Wednesday morning, following a poor start to the trading month on Wall Street that saw major indexes fall amid rising Middle East tensions.fell 0.2%, while the small-cap Kosdaq was up 0.6%. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.6%, while the Topix was down 0.8%.year-to-date salesby economists polled by Reuters who expected a rate of 1.9%. The figure was up by 0.1% on a monthly basis, less than the gains of 0.4% in the previous month and the 0.
Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Wednesday, economist Stephen Roach warned that the Middle East conflict poses upside risk to oil prices and inflation. He also said the U.S. Federal Reserve may need to reconsider furthering its accommodative monetary policy. Meanwhile, U.S. investors are looking ahead to the September jobs report that will be released on Friday. The U.S. economy created slightly"If we're going to have a regional conflict in the Middle East, which certainly appears to be the case, occurring at a time of rising unemployment in the United States, the markets really will not know where to turn," Roach said, adding that such a scenario could create dramatic volatility in markets.