Asian Stock Markets Collapse as Iran Threatens Oil Prices Could Breach US$200 Per Barrel

Stock markets across Asia collapsed in tandem at the opening of trading Monday morning (9 March). Investors began a major sell-off in anticipation of surging energy prices resulting from the escalating US-Israel conflict with Iran.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index led the decline, plummeting more than 7%, followed by South Korea’s KOSPI, which dropped 8%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell nearly 3%. This negative sentiment also spread to US futures markets, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.7% and 1.9% respectively.

Market panic intensified amid escalating Middle Eastern conflict. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) threatened to target energy facilities across the region if US aggression continued. The IRGC warned that oil prices could surge to as high as US$200 per barrel.

These concerns were reinforced by Qatar’s Energy Minister, Saad al-Kaabi. In an interview with The Financial Times, he cautioned that all Gulf producers would likely soon declare force majeure status. “All exporters in the Gulf region would be forced to halt production if this situation continues,” he stated.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that every 10% increase in oil prices would trigger a 0.4% rise in global inflation and reduce global economic growth by 0.15%. Despite the Trump administration insisting the conflict would end within weeks, markets now braced for prolonged economic slowdown.