Asia-Pacific markets fall as investors monitor Middle East tensions; Japan's Nikkei down 1.5%

SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets opened lower Wednesday morning, following a poor start to the trading month on Wall Street that saw major indexes fall amid rising Middle East tensions.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 opened down 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 started the trading day lower by 1.5%. South Korea's Kospi fell 1% at the open, while the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.8%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures were at 20,768, lower than the HSI's last close of 21,133.68. Markets in Mainland China were closed Wednesday and will remain closed for the rest of the week due to the Golden Week holiday.

Traders in Asia were assessing data on consumer inflation out of South Korea. The country's consumer price index rose 1.6% in September from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday morning, missing expectations by economists polled by Reuters who expected a rate of 1.9%.

In the U.S. overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 173 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.93% and 1.53%, respectively. Oil prices and the CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) jumped as Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel. The attack followed Israel's start of a ground operation into Lebanon as tensions escalated with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran's missile attacks had failed and vowed retaliation. "Iran made a big mistake tonight — and it will pay for it," he said, according to NBC News, adding "the regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies."