Asian shares rebounded on Tuesday as a day passed without any new escalation in the Middle East and Wall Street erased early losses to end in the black as tech stocks climbed.
Oil surrendered hefty gains as some speculated Iran would be unlikely to strike against the United States in a way that would disrupt supplies, and its own crude exports.
Brent crude futures fell 54 cents to $68.37 a barrel, having been as high as $70.74 on Monday, while US crude dropped 44 cents to $62.83.
Gold also retreated to $1,557.54 an ounce, after scaling a near seven-year peak of $1,579.72 overnight.
Equities went the other way as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.6 per cent, recouping almost all of Monday’s losses.
Japan’s Nikkei rallied 1.3 per cent and Shanghai blue chips advanced 0.5 per cent. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 firmed 0.1 per cent, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures rose 0.4 per cent.
Shares had fallen sharply on Monday as Iran and the United States traded threats after an US air strike killed a top Iranian commander.
The mood calmed a little as the session passed with no new aggression.
Instead there was much confusion when the US military wrote to Iraq on Monday saying it would pull out of the country, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
Yet US Defence Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters that no decision had been made and the military said the letter was only a poorly worded draft.
Wall Street chose to hope for the best and the Dow rose 0.24 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.35 per cent and the Nasdaq 0.56 per cent.
Surveys of service sectors out overnight showed an improvement in the United States, UK and EU, stirring speculation the closely-watched ISM measure of US services due later Tuesday will also show strength.
“We think the longest U.S. expansion on record still has plenty of legs,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets. “To be sure, Iran adds an additional layer of complexity.”
“But while the risk of conflict has increased, the reality is this is likely to be limited to proxy skirmishes,” he argued. “The risk of a “hot” conflict seems low as Iran is unlikely to respond in such a way that risks a significant escalation from the United States.”
The calmer mood saw the yen lose much of its safe-haven gains, with the dollar bouncing to 108.42 yen from a low of 107.75 hit on Monday.
The euro edged up to $1.1195, but faces stiff chart resistance around $1.1240, while sterling made gains to $1.3172 on better economic data at home.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar had drifted off to 97.645 but stayed above the recent six-month trough of 96.355.