Asian stocks tumble Friday; Kospi drops over 3 percent and Nikkei nearly 3 percent

Asian-Pacific stock markets opened under heavy selling pressure on Friday, 24 July 2026. South Korea's Kospi fell more than 3 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 3 percent. Technology shares bore the brunt: SoftBank lost about 5 percent, while SK Hynix and Kioxia fell close to 4 percent.

Three factors turned sentiment risk-averse at once: a jump in oil prices above 100 dollars amid the Iran-US military tensions and attacks on tankers, an overnight slide in Wall Street technology stocks after heavy capital-spending plans and earnings from Alphabet and Tesla, and rising bond yields. Brent crude, after surging about 7 percent to a two-month high near 102 dollars, held around 100.8 dollars a barrel on Friday morning.

For Iran's market, these moves matter mainly through the global oil price and the global risk mood.