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Asia-Pacific Markets Trade Mixed as Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire Extension Fails to Calm Investors
24 April 2026
Today in Brief
Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed as Israel-Lebanon ceasefire extension fails to calm investors.
Global markets, commodities, and geopolitical tensions continue to drive sharp swings across regions.
Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed as Israel-Lebanon ceasefire extension fails to calm investors
Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed as investors remained cautious despite a three-week extension of the Israel Lebanon ceasefire, underscoring lingering geopolitical uncertainty. Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks following a meeting in the White House with top U.S. officials, President Donald Trump said Thursday. "The Meeting went very well!" Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the extension of the temporary truce. The temporary truce, originally set to expire after 10 days, will now provide additional time for diplomatic efforts, with Washington also pledging to work with Lebanon to strengthen its defenses against Hezbollah. U.S. oil futures rose about 1.23% to around $97.03 per barrel.
Stocks close lower, retreating from records as software shares slump, oil jumps
Stocks pulled back on Thursday, led by a drop in software and higher oil prices, as investor uncertainty toward the trajectory of the Iran war hovered over the market. The S&P 500 traded down 0.41% to close at 7,108.40, after earlier hitting a new all-time intraday high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.89% to finish at 24,438.50. It had also scored a new all-time high in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 179.71 points, or 0.36%, to finish at 49,310.32. Shares of IBM and ServiceNow tumbled more than 8% and almost 18%, respectively, after the companies posted their latest quarterly results. While IBM beat on the top and bottom lines, the company maintained its full-year guidance, disappointing investors.
Gold held below $4,700 an ounce on Friday and was on track to decline about 3% for the week
Gold held below $4,700 an ounce on Friday and was on track to decline about 3% for the week, as escalating tensions between the US and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz drove energy prices higher and intensified inflation concerns. Both sides have maintained their blockades of the strategic waterway, with peace negotiations showing little progress. President Donald Trump also said in a social media post on Thursday that he had ordered the US Navy to "shoot and kill" vessels laying mines in the strait, while US forces also boarded a supertanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, the US-Iran ceasefire has been extended indefinitely as Washington awaits a new formal proposal from Tehran, while the truce between Israel and Lebanon has also been prolonged by three weeks.
WTI crude futures climbed toward $97 per barrel on Friday, on track to gain more than 17% for the week
WTI crude futures climbed toward $97 per barrel on Friday, on track to gain more than 17% for the week as stalled US-Iran peace negotiations and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz fueled supply concerns. Reports indicated that President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts, along with his decision to maintain a naval blockade of Iranian ports, have complicated prospects for renewed negotiations with Tehran. In a post on Thursday, Trump said he had ordered the US Navy to "shoot and kill" vessels laying mines in the strait, while US forces also boarded a supertanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean.
Trump says Israel-Lebanon ceasefire extended by three weeks
Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks following a meeting in the White House with top U.S. officials, President Donald Trump said Thursday. "The Meeting went very well!" Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the extension of the temporary truce. "The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah," Trump wrote, referring to the Iran-backed militia group. "The Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS," he wrote. The agreement provides breathing room for Israel and Lebanon to continue diplomacy by pushing off the looming expiration of an initial, 10-day ceasefire brokered last week.
Trump orders Navy to 'shoot and kill any boat' laying mines in Hormuz Strait
President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he has ordered the U.S. Navy "to shoot and kill any boat" that is laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. "There is to be no hesitation," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. The president added that he is ordering U.S. minesweepers to continue clearing the strait "at a tripled up level!" The post shows the U.S. ratcheting up tensions with Iran over the vital oil shipping route, which has been largely choked off since the war began in late February. Trump has aggressively pushed Tehran to fully reopen the strait as part of a shaky ceasefire, which was set to expire this week before being unilaterally extended by the president.
Japan core inflation accelerates after five months as Iran war stokes energy worries
Core inflation in Japan accelerated for the first time in five months, rising to 1.8% in March as the Iran war fuels worries around energy prices. Government data showed the core inflation figure — which strips out prices of fresh food — was in line with the 1.8% expected by economists polled by Reuters, and was higher than the 1.6% seen in February. Headline inflation came in at 1.5%, compared with 1.3% in February, staying below the central bank's 2% target for a second straight month. The so-called "core-core" inflation rate, which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy, dipped to 2.4% from February's 2.5%, marking its lowest level since October 2024.
The Iran war has stoked competition between India and China for Russian oil
India and China, two of the world's major oil importers, are competing for scarce global crude supplies as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and stalled peace talks between the U.S. and Iran tighten the market. The two economic powerhouses are now locked in a fierce scramble over limited available supplies, mainly from Russia and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. "The competition for Russian crude between India and China has been intense and will continue to be so for June-loading cargoes," Muyu Xu, a senior analyst at Kpler, told CNBC. On April 18, the U.S. renewed a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea for about a month, easing pressure on global prices. However, it did not ease sanctions on Iranian crude, of which almost 98% is bound for China, with smaller volumes reaching India.
Meta will cut 10% of workforce as company pushes deeper into AI
Meta plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 employees, as it continues ramping up investments in artificial intelligence. The cuts will begin May 20, and the company is scrapping plans to hire people for 6,000 open roles, according to a Thursday memo to employees. Bloomberg was first to report on the layoffs. Meta's latest round of cuts follows several smaller job reductions that the company said was necessary to improve efficiency while focusing its efforts on generative AI, where it's lagged OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. CNBC reported in January that Meta fired about 10% of employees who were working on metaverse-related projects. Roughly 1,000 people in the company's Reality Labs unit were let go at that time.
China's DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies
Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features. The release comes more than a year after DeepSeek introduced its R1 reasoning model, which rocked global tech markets due to its surprising performance and efficiency, despite reportedly being developed for much lower costs than U.S. rivals. Similar to DeepSeek's previous V3 model, the latest upgrade is open source, allowing developers to download the code, run it locally, and modify it. The Hangzhou-based company claimed that V4 achieves strong performance against domestic competitors, particularly in agent-based tasks, knowledge processing and inference.
China's Xpeng expects to start full-scale delivery of 'flying' cars in 2027
Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng expects to start large-scale production of its "flying" cars next year and of its humanoid robots in the fourth quarter of 2026, President Brian Gu told Reuters on Thursday. Gu also said there is "tremendous potential" to increase cooperation with German automaker Volkswagen, which last month began mass production of its first EV model, developed jointly with Xpeng. "There are a lot of areas that we can partner and really provide value to each other," Gu said, adding that Xpeng was also open to partnerships with other automakers. "We need to be nimble and willing to partner with different players in different regions." Xpeng has received more than 7,000 orders for its flying cars, the majority of which are in China, where the company is working on obtaining approval from the country's aviation authorities.
Intel forecasts second-quarter revenue above estimates, shares jump 19%
Intel forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations on Thursday, underscoring booming demand for the company's server processors used for artificial intelligence in data centers. Shares of Intel surged 19% in extended trading, adding $64 billion to its market value and extending its 81% rebound so far this year. Nasdaq futures rose 0.3%, showing traders expect the tech-heavy index to rise in Friday's session. The company expects revenue of between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, compared with an estimate of $13.07 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Intel's second-quarter adjusted per-share profit guidance of 20 cents handily beat expectations of 9 cents a share. After years of management blunders left the former icon of chipmaking without a meaningful foothold in the booming artificial-intelligence industry, CEO Lip-Bu Tan put a revival plan in place to shore up Intel's balance sheet through asset sales and layoffs.
