Hong Kong, May 5: Global shares were mixed in holiday-thinned trading Monday, while oil prices fell after the OPEC+ group of oil producing nations said it plans to boost output.
Markets were closed in Britain and much of Asia.
The future for the S&P 500 slid 0.6 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 per cent.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.4 per cent to 23,181.61 and the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.4 per cent to 7,737.21.
US benchmark crude oil fell as much as 4 per cent early in the day. By late Monday in Asia it had shed USD 1.15 or 2 per cent to USD 57.14 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost USD 1.14 to USD 60.15 per barrel.
During the weekend, the OPEC+ group of eight nations announced it will raise its output by 411,000 barrels per day as of June 1, stepping up production increases.
The group said strong fundamentals were behind the decision, though analysts also speculated that it might reflect a desire to curry favour with US President Donald Trump before he makes a visit to the Middle East later this month.
Prices have fallen nearly 20 per cent in the past three months as traders have factored in the likely impact of Trump’s trade policies on the global economy. Trump has made delivering lower gas prices one of his talking points.
“Washington wants cheap energy, and Gulf producers still lean on US security guarantees; the White House bears down, they listen,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
“In that sense the US president has become an unofficial swing vote inside OPEC+,” he said.
US crude oil is down about 17 per cent for the year. According to AAA, gasoline is selling for an average of about USD 3.17 per gallon, down from USD 3.66 per gallon a year ago.
But prices are falling to a point where many producers can no longer turn a profit.
Most markets in Asia were closed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1 per cent to 8,157.80 while Taiwan’s Taiex declined 1.2 per cent.
The US dollar slipped to 144.15 Japanese yen from 144.71 yen.
The euro climbed to USD 1.1329 from 1.1306.
On Friday, Wall Street extended its gains to a ninth straight day, the market’s longest winning streak since 2004. It has reclaiming much of the ground it lost after President Donald Trump escalated his trade war in early April.
The rally was spurred by a better-than-expected report on the US job market and revived hopes that Washington will tone down its trade tensions with China.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.5 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.4 per cent. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.5 per cent.
The S&P 500 is still down 3.3 per cent so far this year, and 7.4 per cent below the record it reached in February.
The gains were broad. Roughly 90 per cent of stocks and every sector in the S&P 500 advanced. Technology stocks led the way. Microsoft rose 2.3 per cent and Nvidia rose 2.5 per cent. Apple, however, fell 3.7 per cent after the iPhone maker estimated that Trump’s tariffs will cost it USD 900 million.
Banks and other financial companies also made solid gains. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.3 per cent and Visa closed 1.5 per cent higher.
Employers added 177,000 jobs in April. That marks a slowdown in hiring from March, but it was solidly better than economists anticipated. Jobs are being closely watched for signs of stress amid trade war tensions.
The economy is already showing signs of strain. The US economy shrank at a 0.3 per cent annual pace during the first quarter of the year. It was slowed by a surge in imports as businesses tried to get ahead of Trump’s tariffs.
Companies have been cutting and withdrawing financial forecasts because of the uncertainty over how much tariffs will cost them and how much they will squeeze consumers and sap spending. (AP)
