Asian shares slip and oil prices retreat from latest flare in Iran tensions

HONG KONG, May 5, (AP): Asian stocks declined Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street after US stocks retreated from record highs. Oil prices fell back after rising earlier on escalating tensions in the war between the US and Iran. US futures edged 0.1% higher. Regional trading was thin, with markets in Japan, South Korea and mainland China closed for holidays.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 25,757.56, while Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.3%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4% to 8,659.90 after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35%, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation. The cash rate hike on Tuesday was the Reserve Bank of Australia’s third quarter percentage point rise this year.

The bank said Australia’s inflation for the year through March was 4.6%. The bank manipulates interest rates to steer inflation toward a target band of 2% to 3%. India's Sensex lost 0.7%. The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran was tested Monday after the US military said it had sank six Iranian small boats targeting civilian ships, while two US-flagged ships successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The key waterway for oil and gas tranport remains largely closed despite repeated demands from the US for Iran to reopen the strait and as the United States imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. US President Donald Trump's "Project Freedom” plan under which the United States would help guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz began on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell $1.13 to $113.31 per barrel. It surged above $114 a barrel on Monday, gaining nearly 6%. Before the war began in late February, it was trading near $70. Benchmark US crude slipped $2.04 to $104.38 per barrel. Talks on a permanent end to war have stalled. Tensions escalated when the United Arab Emirates, a US ally, said it came under attack from Iran for the first time since the ceasefire last month.

"We are seeing the first signs of the ceasefire between the US and Iran breaking down amid a re-escalation in the Persian Gulf,” ING Bank analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note Tuesday. "Continuation of 'Project Freedom' risks further escalation,” they wrote. "Any relief from stranded vessels making their way through the Strait will be temporary, with very few inbound vessels moving into the Persian Gulf.”