Foreign exchange trader monitoring exchange rates in the dealing room of Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul
Jung Young Jae | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Thursday after the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister said Iran indicated it had no intention of holding direct talks with the United States, even though it was considering US proposals to end the war.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the exchange of messages between the two countries through an intermediary “does not mean negotiations with the United States,” according to Reuters.
Earlier Wednesday, Iranian state media reported that the country had rejected a US ceasefire offer and outlined its own terms for ending the war.
Thierry Wismann, global currency and rates strategist at Macquarie Group, said a ceasefire was not imminent.
“Rather, it is likely that increased military action by the United States in an attempt to force important concessions from Iran will take the next two weeks until large-scale combat operations are successful, perhaps by mid-April,” Wisman said.
“The war may now enter a third phase, not just talking or fighting, but ‘talking and fighting,'” he wrote in a memo.
australian S&P/ASX 200 It decreased by 0.1% to 8,525.7.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.27% to 53,603.65, and Topix fell 0.22% to 3,642.8. South Korea’s Kospi fell more than 3% to 5,460.46, and the small-cap Kosdaq fell 1.98% to 1,136.64.
hong kong Hang Seng Index fell 1.9% and the CSI 300 fell more than 1% to 4,477.53.
Oil prices remained stable during Asian trading hours. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 0.72% to $91 per barrel.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 305.43 points (0.66%) to close at 46,429.49. The S&P 500 rose 0.54% to 6,591.90 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.77% to end at 21,929.83.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
