Asia-Pacific markets set for lower open as Trump rattles defense firms and oil prices slide

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower Thursday after Wall Street closed in the red on growing geopolitical tensions and comments from U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. defense stocks fell after the president said he “will not permit” defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until they address his complaints about the industry, including executive pay packages and production issues.

Oil prices also dropped overnight after Trump said that Venezuela’s interim authorities would turn over as much as 50 million barrels of crude to the U.S., raising concerns about an increase in global supply.

Brent crude futures fell 0.51% to $60.39 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude added 0.61% to $56.33 per barrel, as of 7.30 a.m. Singapore time (Wednesday 6.30 p.m. EST).

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was set for a lower open, with its futures contract in Chicago trading at 51,935, and its counterpart in Osaka at 51,850, against the index’s last close of 51,961.98.

Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 was flat. Shares of BlueScope Steel fell 2.54% early Thursday, after the company rejected a $9 billion takeover bid from Australian conglomerate SGH and U.S.-based Steel Dynamics.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was set to open lower, with its futures contract trading at 26,348, against the index’s previous close of 26,458.95.

U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours, after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a three-day winning streak.

Overnight, the broad market index shed about 0.3% while the Dow fell 466 points, or roughly 0.9%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained nearly 0.2%, aided by a 2.4% jump in Google parent Alphabet that led the company’s market cap to surpass Apple’s for the first time since 2019.

— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.