Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade Tuesday, with benchmark US crude gaining 84 cents to $81.18 a barrel and Brent crude jumping $1.15 to $84.92. The recovery followed a more than 5% drop on Monday after US President Donald Trump said he had decided to hold off on new strikes against Iran.
Asian markets traded mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3% to 63,585.58, while the US dollar inched up to 157.51 yen from 157.18 yen. South Korea's Kospi sank 1.3%, but Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.2%.
Investors continued to weigh the impact of last week's joint US-Japan currency intervention, which aimed to boost the yen after it fell to nearly 40-year lows. Analysts expressed uncertainty about its effectiveness, noting it doesn't address fundamental economic drivers like inflation and interest rates.
A report by BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said a US-backed operation carries more signaling weight than Tokyo acting alone, but any US contribution will probably be constrained by size. Matthew Ryan of Ebury called it 'historic and meaningful' for the yen, improving confidence in a mildly bullish outlook.
Markets remained unsettled by swings in computer chip stocks, which have veered up and down on worries about the sustainability of AI-driven revenue growth. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5%, the Dow climbed 1.3% to an all-time high, and the Nasdaq leaped 2.1%.
Source: yahoo.com
