Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
The Asian and Pacific Rim financial markets drifted higher with some mixed results Wednesday morning. Volume was lower than usual with the Asian financial markets in Japan and Thailand closed for a public holiday.
In South Korea, the Kospi composite index was up over one percent as shares of Hyundai Motor gained nearly two percent. The Kosdaq added 1.38 percent by lunch time.
Elsewhere in the Asian and Pacific Rim, the Australian ASX 200 was down 0.72 percent. Economic data showed monthly retail sales gaining 8.5 percent for March. This was just above the expected gain of 8.2 percent.
In Hong Kong the Hang Seng index was up 0.85 percent but the headline bourses in China were heading lower early on. The Shanghai composite was down 0.36 percent and the Shenzhen composite was down a fraction of a percent.
Asian Traders Monitor Oil Prices
Crude oil prices pared back some of the sharp gains seen on Tuesday. During the early trade hours in Asia, the International benchmark Brent crude futures lost 0.1 percent to trade at to $30.94 per barrel.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contract was down 0.62 percent to fetch $24.41 per barrel.
Oil got a nice boost yesterday as traders were feeling optimistic over production cuts and regional economies starting to reopen. As the world economy gets going, demand for oil will improve. The WTI benchmark leaped 20.47 percent and the Brent crude futures contract gained 13.36 percent on Tuesday.
Tensions between China and the United States continue to Escalate
The war of words between the world’s two largest economies continue to possibly derail a fragile trade war truce in place. The White House continues to insist that China had more to do with the release of the Covid-19 virus.
Intelligence officials say there is no evidence of this. China has called the U.S. rhetoric “evil” and baseless.
