Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Tuesday as United States President Donald Trump ruled out extending a 60-day agreement with Iran that had supported a fragile ceasefire, while threatening Oman with military action.
By 11:40 am AEST (1:40 am GMT), Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.3% higher, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.7%. South Korea's KOSPI 200 gained 2.4%.
Australian consumer confidence also improved in August. The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index rose 6% to 88.9 in August from 83.9 in July.
Westpac Group Chief Economist Luci Ellis said:
"This is still a weak result and noticeably lower than the readings recorded last year. While consumers are feeling less pessimistic than last month, pessimists still outnumber optimists, especially about their current finances.
"The improvement in forward-looking views was also much less pronounced than for the questions covering current conditions. This suggests that pervasive uncertainty, including about the Middle East, is still weighing on sentiment to some extent.
"The gain was concentrated among people with mortgages, and in responses received after the RBA decision on 11 August. Responses received before the decision were little changed compared with July, with all the monthly improvement emerging afterwards.
"Sentiment among renters increased after the RBA meeting, but the pre-meeting read was below the July outcome, leaving renter sentiment down a little in the month overall."
In the U.S., major benchmarks finished lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each declining 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3%.
On commodity markets, ICE Brent crude settled 2.7% higher at US$90.87 a barrel on Monday, while spot gold gained 0.9% to US$4,415.86 an ounce.
Chinese equities ended higher, with the SSE Composite Index rising 1.4% to 3,927.2 and the CSI 300 gaining 1.6% to 4,741.1.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 1.3% to 25,453.2, while India's BSE Sensex fell 0.4% to 77,728.2.
European markets finished lower across the board. The UK's FTSE 100 declined 0.3% to 10,720.3, Germany's DAX fell 0.4% to 26,338.6 and France's CAC 40 lost 0.7% to 8,579.6.
