Asia-Pacific markets open higher after oil declines sent Wall Street higher overnight

<p>Asia-Pacific markets jumped on Tuesday as investors monitor the latest developments in the Iran war, with U.S. President Donald Trump looking to delay his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping by "a month or so" due to the Middle East conflict.</p>
<p>Trump was expected to travel to China at the end of March.</p>
<p>International benchmark <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@LCO.1/">Brent crude</a> futures lost 2.84% to end at $100.21 per barrel on Monday, while U.S. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@CL.1/">West Texas Intermediate</a> futures dropped 5.28% to $93.50. Brent was last up 1% at $101.58 per barrel and WTI had advanced 2% to $95.47. </p>
<p>Australia's <a href="/quotes/.AXJO/">S&amp;P/ASX 200</a> added 0.27%. Australia central bank is expected to raise rates for a second straight time, pushing its key policy rate to 4.1%, highest since April 2025. according to Reuters estimates.</p>
<p>Japan's <a href="/quotes/.N225/">Nikkei 225</a> added 0.75%, while the Topix jumped more than 1%. South Korea's <a href="/quotes/.KS11/">Kospi</a> rose 2.94%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 1.53%.</p>
<p>Memory makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose over 3% and 4%, respectively. This comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects purchase orders between Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips to reach $1 trillion through 2027 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/NVDA/">at Nvidia's</a> annual developer conference on Monday.</p>
<p>Hong Kong <a href="/quotes/.HSI/">Hang Seng index</a> futures were set at 25,894, compared with the index's last close of 25,834.02.</p>
<p>Stock futures were flat after the major averages bounced overnight in light of cooling oil prices.</p>
<p>Futures tied to the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@DJ.1/">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a> lost 46 points, or 0.1%. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@SP.1/">S&amp;P 500 futures</a> slipped 0.1%, while <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@ND.1/">Nasdaq 100 futures</a> declined nearly 0.2%.</p>
<p>Overnight in the U.S., stocks rose while oil prices pulled back as Wall Street tried to recover from another losing week, with investors monitoring the latest developments of the Iran war.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.DJI/">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a> added 387.94 points, or 0.83%, closing at 46,946.41. The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.SPX/">S&amp;P 500</a> rose 1.01% to end at 6,699.38, and the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.IXIC/">Nasdaq Composite</a> gained 1.22% and settled at 22,374.18.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/META/">Meta</a> shares gained more than 2% on a report — which the company has called "speculative" — that it is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/16/meta-ai-costs-mass-layoffs-20percent-up-premarket.html">planning to lay off more than 20%</a> of its workforce. Additionally, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/NVDA/">Nvidia</a> shares rose more than 1% as its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/nvidia-gtc-ai-jensen-huang-cpu-gpu.html">GTC conference</a> kicked off Monday.</p>
<p>—CNBC's Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to the report.</p>