Asian Stocks Rise as Iran Talks Lift Wall Street Records

Asian equities opened 0.4% higher Thursday as traders priced in a potential de-escalation of Middle East tensions, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index extending momentum from Wall Street's record session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both closed at all-time highs in the prior session, driven partly by stronger-than-expected revenue from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, which lifted the broader financials sector. The market logic is straightforward: progress in US-Iran talks raises expectations that oil supply disruption risk will ease, which in turn reduces input cost pressure and supports the growth outlook across energy-importing economies. The near-term watch points are whether diplomatic signals harden into concrete agreement and whether oil prices sustain any pullback. A durable de-escalation would reinforce the current risk-on rotation, while a breakdown in talks would quickly reverse the geopolitical discount markets are now pricing out of crude.