Asia-Pacific Market Indexes Chart
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 43.68 points to close at 26,004.83 while the S&P 500 ended its trading day 0.2% lower at 2,879.84. The Nasdaq Composite lagged, sliding 0.4% to close at 7,792.72.
Wednesday’s declines stateside came following muted trading action in the previous session. The Dow closed marginally lower on Tuesday, ending a six-day winning streak.
Oil prices plunged on Wednesday following data that showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories for the second week in a row, against the backdrop of fears that fuel demand could weaken amid the U.S.-China trade fight.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures plunged $2.13 to $51.15 per barrel, tumbling 4% on the day to a new five-month low. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, fell $2.32 or 3.7%, at $59.97 a barrel, its first settle below $60 since January.
In the morning of Asian trading hours on Thursday, oil prices bounced slightly from those losses. U.S. crude futures rose 0.18% to $51.23 per barrel, while Brent added 0.13% to $60.05 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.960 after rising from levels around 96.6 yesterday.
The Japanese yen changed hands at 108.48 against the dollar after seeing levels below 108.3 in the previous session. while the Australian dollar traded at $0.6931 after slipping from the $0.696 handle yesterday.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report.
