Commodities
Asian Stocks Plunge as Oil Prices Surge to $108
Asian shares declined on Friday, mirroring losses on Wall Street, while oil prices rose to their highest since May. Brent crude traded above $108 a barrel, up 0.9% from Thursday's close.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 2.8% to 63,442.30, with SoftBank Group falling 4.1%. South Korea's Kospi lost 2.3%, and Samsung Electronics slid 3.9%.
Oil prices continued to rise as tensions between the US and Iran intensified. Brent crude was approximately $72 a barrel in late February before the start of the war, but is now at its highest since May.