Asia-Pacific markets set to open higher as investors assess U.S.-Iran peace deal diplomacy

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Friday as investors assess U.S.-Iran diplomatic efforts at reaching a peace deal in the Middle East.

While oil prices fell in U.S. trading on hopes of a deal, reports that Tehran intends to keep its enriched uranium stockpile within the country stand to complicate negotiations with Washington as PresidentDonald Trumphas made dismantling Iran’s nuclear program a central objective of his military action against Tehran.

Japan’sNikkei 225was poised to rise, with the Chicago futures contract at 62,225 and the Osaka counterpart last trading at 62,210 compared with the index’s previous close of 61,684.14.

Hong Kong’sHang Seng indexfutures were last at 25,568, higher than the index’s last close of 25,386.52.

In Australia, futures last traded at 8,681, higher than theS&P/ASX 200‘s last close of 8,621.7.

Overnight on Wall Street, theDow Jones Industrial Averagerose to a record close. The blue-chip index gained 276.31 points, or 0.55%, for a closing record of 50,285.66. TheS&P 500advanced 0.17% to 7,445.72, while theNasdaq Compositeincreased 0.09% to end at 26,293.10.

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Sarah Min and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report