Asian Markets Decline Amid Rising Oil Prices and Global Bond Yields

U.S. stock index futures also declined during Asian hours, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq futures dropping nearly 1%. This followed a higher closing for Wall Street on the previous Friday.

In Asia, South Korea's KOSPI fell by 2.7%, China's blue-chip CSI 300 dropped 2.2%, and the Shanghai Composite decreased by 1.6%. Conversely, Hong Kong's Hang Seng managed to gain about 0.6%. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.7%, and the broader TOPIX index edged down 0.3%. India's Nifty 50 declined by 1.3%.

Oil prices increased after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, although he indicated that talks would continue this week. Brent Oil Futures rose over 2% to surpass $107 a barrel, contributing to a September increase of over 19%. The rising oil prices raised concerns that sustained energy costs could keep inflation high and prompt central banks to either maintain or raise interest rates.

U.S. 30-year Treasury yields climbed to 5.5185%, nearing their highest levels since 2004, while 10-year yields remained above 5%. Market expectations now reflect approximately a 66% chance of another Federal Reserve rate hike in October.

Chipmakers experienced significant selling pressure on Monday. South Korea's SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics both saw their shares fall nearly 5%. Japan's Kioxia Holdings dipped by 3.7%, and Hong Kong-listed Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) dropped 3.4%, with Hua Hong Semiconductor declining by 4.2%. The dip in chipmaker stocks followed OpenAI's announcement to pause training, evaluation, and inference for some of its most advanced models, raising concerns about a possible slowdown in AI development and resulting demand for advanced chips and data-center infrastructure.