Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed on Thursday after Wall Street’s two-day rally faded away, indicating that markets are downplaying the impact of rising oil prices.
As of 9.37 a.m. Thai time, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.89%. The Kospi in South Korea rose 1.23%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell marginally. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.53%.
Mainland China markets are closed for a holiday this week.
After two consecutive sessions of solid gains, U.S. stocks dropped overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 42.45 points, or 0.14%, to 30,273.87 after falling nearly 430 points earlier in the day. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively, at 3,783.28 and 11,148.64.
Oil prices in early Asian trade on Thursday rose slightly after OPEC+ reached an agreement to cut oil production by about 2 million barrels per day, further tightening the global crude supply.
By 7.27 a.m. Thai time, Brent crude futures had gained 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $93.83 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures added 45 cents, or 0.5%, to $88.21 per barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies known as OPEC+ agreed on Wednesday to a production cut of by 2 million barrels per day from November in an attempt to recover declining crude oil prices in the last few months.
In the first face-to-face meeting since 2020, the group of some of the world’s most powerful oil producers delivered a move that went against the U.S. pledge to lower the burden of global consumers by increasing output to make oil prices even lower.
