Oil Prices Ease, Asian Shares Lower As Energy Supply Worries Remain
The Iran war, which is in its third week, has sent energy prices soaring and is fuelling global inflation worries.
Hong Kong : Oil prices on Friday pared earlier gains on the intensifying Iran war, falling back to around USD 108 a barrel, as Iran strikes Gulf energy facilities, while Asian shares were mostly down following Wall Street losses.
US futures edged up 0.1 per cent.
Oil prices had a roller-coaster day on Thursday with the Brent crude, the international standard, briefly surging to around USD 119 per barrel as attacks by Iran on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf escalated after Israel's attack of Iran's key natural gas field.
In early Friday trading, Brent crude fell 0.4 per cent to USD 108.19 a barrel, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks that he would hold off on further attacks on Iran's gas field at the request of US President Donald Trump. Benchmark US crude was down 1.2 per cent to USD 94.40 a barrel.
The Iran war, which is in its third week, has sent energy prices soaring and is fuelling global inflation worries. Concerns are also growing over the supply of oil and gas with the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for the energy supply located between Iran and Oman, largely closed.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday floated the possibility of lifting its sanctions on Iranian oil at sea in a potential attempt to ease oil prices.
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.3 per cent to 5,781.20. Japan's Nikkei 225 was closed on Friday on a holiday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1 per cent to 25,253.78, while the Shanghai Composite index was down 1.2 per cent to 3,957.05.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.8 per cent to 8,428.40.
Taiwan's Taiex was trading 0.4 per cent lower, and India's Sensex was up 1 per cent.
On Thursday, Wall Street reported modest losses. The S&P 500 was down 0.3 per cent to 6,606.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent to 46,021.43, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3 per cent lower at 22,090.69.
Shares of US memory chip maker Micron Technology were down 3.8 per cent even though the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results. Its shares were still up roughly 330 per cent over the past year on a worldwide memory chip shortage.
In other dealings early Friday, gold and silver prices gained. Gold fell below USD 4,700 earlier, partly on inflation worries. On Friday, gold prices gained 1.8 per cent to USD 4,688.50 per ounce. Silver prices rose 1.3 per cent to USD 72.11 an ounce.
The US dollar rose to 158.37 Japanese yen from 157.76 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1570, down from USD 1.1589.
