Australia and Japan markets set to climb, looking past Iran war escalation fears
Pedestrians at Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
Brendon Thorne | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Markets in Australia and Japan were set to climb Tuesday, mirroring gains on Wall Street that saw both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reach new highs.
This comes as investors took in strong earnings from Apple and Caterpillar, looking past weaker-than-expected economic data and threats of escalation in Iran by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Brent crude prices had risen to top $126 a barrel after Axios reported that the U.S. military would brief Trump on potential action against Iran.
Brent closed at $110.40 a barrel, while U.S West Texas Intermediate was 0.61% up at $105.71, as of 7:46 p.m. ET.
On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product rose at a 2% annualized pace in the first quarter. While that was an increase from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, it was below the 2.2% consensus estimate by Wall Street economists.
Most major Asian markets are closed due to the May Day holiday.
Futures for Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 stood at 8,795, slightly higher than its last close of 8,665.8.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures also pointed to a stronger open, with the futures contract in Chicago at 59,765 and its counterpart in Osaka at 59,720, compared with the previous close of 59,284.92.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 rose 1.02% to close at a record of 7,209.01, its first close above the 7,200 threshold. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 0.89%, hitting new intraday and closing records as well.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.62%.
U.S. futures for all three major indexes were marginally up after the session, with S&P 500 futures advancing 0.16%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 79 points, or about 0.2%.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
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