Following Israel's strike on the Iranian capital, Asian markets opened Friday with a downturn, an event exacerbated by escalating tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear proliferation program, triggering a substantial surge in both West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude benchmarks. Equity markets witnessed a broad retreat, with key indices – including Tokyo's Nikkei 225, Seoul's KOSPI, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, the Shanghai Composite, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 – all registering declines. Despite the gravity of the Israeli action, which, according to Xu Tianchen of the Economist Intelligence Unit, poses a significant global systemic risk, Asian markets are expected to demonstrate resilience, underpinned by limited exposure to the conflict and bolstered by strengthened ties with unaffected regional powerhouses like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Juxtaposed against this backdrop, US equity indices had rallied on Thursday, buoyed by favorable inflation data, the subsequent decline in US Treasury yields suggesting a potential easing of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve later in the year; however, persistent anxieties linger regarding the potential inflationary pressures and associated recessionary risks emanating from the prospect of renewed tariff impositions, a hallmark of the previous administration.