Thursday, 21 May 2020
- Asia shares set for early gains as focus swings to recovery
- Dollar nurses losses as currency markets eye recovery prospects
- Oil prices climb as U.S. stock drawdown eases supply glut fears
Asian shares were poised to open higher on Thursday after global equities and crude prices rallied overnight on hopes of a rapid economic recovery and government support.
Hong Kong futures HSIc1 edged higher. Nikkei futures NKc1 were trading above the Nikkei 225 index’s previous close. Australian shares were also set to rise. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.52%, the S&P 500 gained 1.67%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.08%.
The dollar nursed broad losses on Thursday and riskier currencies held gains as investors looked to a bright recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, shrugging off diabolical forecasts and rising Sino-U.S. tension.
In bullish overnight trade, the risk-sensitive Australian dollar broke free from two months of rangebound moves to hit a ten-week high of $0.6616. The kiwi hit a ten-day top of $0.6157 and both seemed poised for further gains. In Asia, the euro last sat just below that peak at $1.0975 and the dollar inched higher on the Japanese yen to 107.68.
Oil prices edged higher on Thursday after data showed U.S. crude inventories fell again, easing concern about a supply glut, though lingering fears over the global economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic capped gains.
Brent crude futures for July delivery were trading up 17 cents, or 0.5%, at $35.92 per barrel at 0024 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for July were up 4 cents, or 0.1%, at $33.53 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 5 million barrels last week, against expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel rise, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed, while stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub dropped by 5.6 million barrels
Source : Reuters
