March 14, 2022: -Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Friday trade, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to keep investors cautious. The Nikkei 225 in Japan decreased 2.05% to close at 25,162.78, shedding some of its nearly 4% gains on Thursday. Shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group came down to 6.21%. The Topix index slipped 1.67% to 1,799.54.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which fell over 3% earlier, partially recovered but still closed 1.61% lower at 20,553.79. Chinese tech stocks listed in the city declined: Tencent is dropping 4.47%, Alibaba slipped 5.52%, and Meituan plunged 6.1%. The Hang Seng Tech index decreased 4.28% to 4,246.97.

The Shanghai Composite in mainland China is closing 0.41% higher at 3,309.75 while the Shenzhen component increased 0.618% to 12,447.37. Both indexes had decreased over 2% during the session before recovering.

In South Korea, the Kospi dipped 0.71% on the day to 2,661.28. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.94% to finish its trading day at 7,063.60.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan Nikkei decreased by 1.28%.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 slipped 0.43% to 4,259.52 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 112.18 points to 33,174.07. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.95% to 13,129.96.

On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that America is set for another year of “very uncomfortably high” inflation amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Talks amid Russia and Ukraine’s foreign ministers in Turkey on Thursday failed.

Yellen’s remarks came as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to a surge in commodity prices. Data released on Thursday showed U.S. consumer inflation soaring in February, with the consumer price index for that month rising 7.9% compared to a year ago, the highest level since Jan. 1982.

Oil prices were surging in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures increased 2.3% to $111.85 per barrel. U.S. crude futures advanced 1.91% to $108.04 per barrel.