Asian stocks experienced a decline after initially gaining, influenced by a surge in oil prices amidst escalating Middle East tensions, which impacted investor sentiment before key tech earnings reports. The KOSPI index rose by 0.7% after a significant early jump, while Japan's Nikkei fell by 0.4% after an early gain. Oil prices hit six-week highs, raising concerns about inflation. U.S. stock futures showed a mixed response, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading losses as investors await quarterly earnings from major companies like Alphabet and Tesla.

Asia stocks erase early gains as oil surge weighs; Alphabet results ahead

Author Ayushman Ojha

Stock Markets

Published 07/21/2026, 11:48 PM

Updated 07/22/2026, 03:24 AM

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Asia stocks erase early gains as oil surge weighs; Alphabet results ahead

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Investing.com-- Asian stocks pared early gains on Wednesday as escalating Middle East tensions pushed oil prices to six-week highs, weighing on risk appetite ahead of quarterly earnings from major U.S. technology companies

U.S. stock index futures turned on Wednesday by 03:13 ET, with tech-heavy Nasdaq leading losses.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.9% to snap a three-session losing streak, while the NASDAQ Composite gained 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%

Investors were cautious ahead of quarterly earnings from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), due later on Wednesday.

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KOSPI erases gains, Nikkei falls after oil surge

South Korea’s KOSPI closed 0.7% higher after jumping over 5% in early trading, with chipmakers Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) and SK Hynix (KS:000660) moving in line with the trend.

The retreat came as crude prices extended their rally to hit six-week highs after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels threatened to widen the conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude rose above $93 a barrel after two tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reportedly reversed course in the Red Sea following Houthi threats.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 0.4% lower after climbing nearly 2% earlier in the day, while the broader TOPIX index closed 0.5% higher.

In other news, data showed on Wednesday that Japan’s exports rose 19.3% in June from a year earlier, beating forecasts for an 18.6% increase and marking a tenth straight month of growth, driven by AI-related demand for semiconductor equipment and a weak yen.

US500+0.89%DJI+0.74%AXJO+0.34%JP225-0.37%HK50-0.95%+0.08%GOOGL-1.38%LCO+3.1%TSLA+2.53%IXIC+1.29%NSEI-0.79%KS11+0.74%STI+1.24%SSEC+0.07%TOPX+0.45%000660-0.33%005930+0.58%CSI300-0.46%

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US500+0.89%DJI+0.74%AXJO+0.34%JP225-0.37%HK50-0.95%JPY/USD+0.08%GOOGL-1.38%LCO+3.1%TSLA+2.53%IXIC+1.29%NSEI-0.79%KS11+0.74%STI+1.24%SSEC+0.07%TOPX+0.45%000660-0.33%005930+0.58%CSI300-0.46%

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Imports climbed 25.4%, above expectations for a 21% rise, leaving Japan with a trade deficit of 406.9 billion yen as higher crude oil prices inflated import costs.

Traders eye key U.S. tech earnings

In China, the Shanghai Composite index settled largely unchanged, while the blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 fell 0.5%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded 1.1% lower.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.3%, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index traded 0.5% higher.

Futures tied to India’s Nifty 50 fell 0.8% by midday.

Investors try to assess whether the AI-powered gains in technology stocks could be sustained after major U.S. corporate earnings.

Markets are closely watching results from Alphabet for fresh signals on AI spending, cloud demand and corporate investment trends.

The earlier rebound in equities suggested investors were willing to look beyond geopolitical risks for now, although persistent strength in oil prices could rekindle inflation concerns and complicate the outlook for global central banks.

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Asia stocks erase early gains as oil surge weighs; Alphabet results ahead

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Anmol Panchal 3 hours ago

If Chinese companies can create frontier models at a fraction of the cost why are we spending so much here. This also shows how wide both quality labor market and qualitative model development we really have. If they even stole data then what at least they know how to pre train, optimize, inferrence and monetize at scale at rapid pace which will be dumped at a high rate making hyperscalers AI models obsolete as capex doesn't justify the AI models nor their monetization capabilities. Running Kimi, GPT and Fable side by side Kimi was by far the most efficient. Less tokens, greater contextual understanding, better output , without token maxing.

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Vladimir Liska 4 hours ago

kospí will have another double-digit loss tomorrow

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TSLA	378.93	+2.53%	32.74M
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