Surging bond yields keep pressure on Asian indices
Oil prices soar on growing concern over the Israel-Hamas war; Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite index and Nikkei 225 declined; Stock markets in France, Germany and the UK also traded lower
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Hong Kong: World shares slipped and oil prices soared Friday on deepening concern over the Israel-Hamas war. US futures edged lower, auguring more losses after a retreat Thursday driven by rising bond yields. Oil prices gained about $3 early Friday after Israel’s military ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate ahead of a possible ground offensive. The directive followed what the United Nations said was a warning from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza within 24 hours. Since their summertime leap and subsequent regression a couple weeks ago, crude oil prices have been jolted by the fighting in Gaza.
The worry is the violence could lead to disruptions in the supply of petroleum. A barrel of benchmark US crude gained $2.97 to $85.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It slipped 58 cents to settle at $82.91 on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $2.98 to $89.01 per barrel. In share trading, Germany’s DAX fell 1 per cent to 15,274.88 and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 92 cents to $7,039.45. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.6 per cent at 7,600.63. The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.3 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 per cent. In Asia, Hong Kong’s benchmark dropped 2.3 per cent, to 17,813.45 as investors were disappointed by the latest Chinese economic data. The data showed China’s economy remains in the doldrums, with prices weaker due to slack demand from consumers and businesses.
Consumer prices remained flat in September compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said, while wholesale prices fell 2.5 per cent. Exports and imports also fell last month as demand fell in overseas markets. The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.6 per cent to 3,088.10. In South Korea, the Kospi lost 1 per cent, to 2,456.15 after official data released on Friday showed unemployment rose to 2.6 per cent in September from a historic low of 2.4 per cent in August. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 per cent to 32,315.99.
