Australia, Japan mixed in early trade as many Asian markets shut for holiday

FAN Editor

Markets in Australia and Japan opened mixed on Tuesday, following a decline in U.S. stocks amid a pullback in the telecommunications sector.

Australia’s ASX 200 was up 0.06 percent in early trade. The energy sector was up 0.82 percent as oil stocks gained. Shares of Santos rose 0.33 percent, Oil Search was up 0.89 percent and Woodside Petroleum added 1.06 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.19 percent while the Topix index lost 0.43 percent.

Trading volumes are expected to be low as many markets in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, are shut for a public holiday.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is set to announce its monetary policy decision at 2:30 p.m. Sydney time. Market watchers expect the central bank to stay on hold.

The Australian dollar traded at $0.7533 as of 8:19 a.m. HK/SIN, declining from levels above $0.7600 in the previous week.

“All eyes will be on the RBA and Governor [Philip] Lowe today,” Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, wrote in a morning note. “We expect the policy outlook to be unchanged. With domestic factors offering little to offset, we expect global forces to continue to dominate, bringing the [Australian dollar] lower.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, held above its 91 level. It last traded at 91.828.

The Japanese yen traded at 109.25 to the dollar and the euro fetched $1.2078.

Oil prices rose overnight amid heightened geopolitical risks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed a cache of files obtained from Iran proves the country ran a secret program to build nuclear weapons.

However, the trove of data did not contain new information that was not known to diplomats who negotiated the landmark Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Iran-watchers said the press conference appeared calculated to embolden Trump to scrap the accord.

“Investors were spooked by reports that an Israeli intelligence report suggested Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program,” Hynes said. “This comes at a sensitive time, with the U.S. President required to ratify the Iran nuclear deal “

Netanyahu’s remarks come less than two weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump must decide whether to continue suspending sanctions against Iran under that deal, or restore the penalties on one of the world’s biggest oil producers.

U.S. crude rose 47 cents to $68.57 a barrel while global benchmark Brent was up 90 cents at $74.69.

— CNBC’s Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report.

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

EXCLUSIVE: EPA whistleblower says Pruitt 'lied' to Congress

A whistleblower from the Environmental Protection Agency says that Administrator Scott Pruitt was “bold-faced” lying when he told members of Congress that no EPA employees were retaliated against for raising concerns about his spending decisions. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Kyra Phillips, former deputy chief of staff Kevin […]