Asian Stocks Plunge, Oil Prices Surge on US Selloff and Middle East Tensions

(Central News Agency, Tokyo, 8th, Combined Foreign News) Asian stock markets fell sharply in early trading today, impacted by a heavy selloff on Wall Street and Iran's missile attack on Israel. International oil prices also rose in tandem.

According to AFP, as of 9:53 a.m. local time (8:53 a.m. Taiwan time), Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 3.41% to 64,318.06 points. South Korea's KOSPI index plunged 6.81% to 7,604.98 points.

International benchmark Brent crude rose 2.4% to $95.32 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.3% to $92.59 per barrel.

The situation in the Middle East is rapidly escalating. For the first time since the ceasefire agreement took effect on April 8, air raid sirens sounded in Israel today as the military worked to intercept a barrage of missiles from Iran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards stated that the attack was a "warning" for Israel's earlier bombing of the southern suburbs of Beirut and threatened to expand retaliatory actions if hostilities resume.

On the 5th of this month, major U.S. stock indices on Wall Street suffered a broad decline, primarily due to a massive selloff in technology stocks that had previously been driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom. (Editor: Shih Shih) 1150608