Oil prices soar, stock markets fall amid regional conflict

Brent crude rose as much as 13 percent in Asia on Monday morning before stabilising later in the day, with the international benchmark up by about 5 percent, at $76.48 per barrel, as of midday Tokyo time.
According to Al Jazeera, Asian stock markets opened lower, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 down about 2 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
In the US, stock futures, which are traded outside of regular market hours, racked up significant losses, signalling a choppy day ahead on Wall Street.
Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were both down about 0.7 percent./mehr