Asian shares nosedive

Oil gains after OPEC plus strikes deal

TOKYO, April 13, (AP): Shares were mostly lower Monday in Asia while crude prices held steady after OPEC and other oil producing nations agreed to cut output to reflect the collapse of demand due to the pandemic.

Just hours before markets reopened, OPEC, Russia and other oil producers finalized an unprecedented production cut of nearly 10 million barrels, or a tenth of global supply, seeking to boost crashing prices and end a price war.

US benchmark crude jumped more than $1 but then lost some ground, gaining 65 cents to $23.41 per barrel. It fell $2.33, or 9.3%, to $22.76 per barrel on Thursday, before the Good Friday holiday.

Brent, the international standard for pricing, added 70 cents to $32.22 per barrel.

Agreed

The oil producers agreed in a video conference late Sunday to cut 9.7 million barrels a day beginning May 1. Mexico had initially blocked the deal. Iran’s oil minister also says several Middle Eastern nations agreed to an additional cut of 2 million barrels a day.

Analysts said the cuts were not enough to make up for the void in demand due to business and travel shutdowns due to the coronavirus. But the deal at least helped resolve a price war that took US crude to near $20 per barrel, pummeling US oil and gas producers.

“With a demand shock estimated at between 15 to 30 million barrels of oil a day, depending on who you talk to, it is clear that the OPEC+ agreement contains more hope than reality,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a commentary.

“The entire construction is underwhelming, to say the least, and really relies on production collapsing in the US and Canada to deliver the level of cuts required.”

In share trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 2.3% to 19,043.40, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.5% to 2,781.45. The Kospi in South Korea shed 1.8% to 1,827.35. India’s Sensex slipped 0.7% to 30,936.30.

Markets in Hong Kong, Sydney and some other regional markets were closed for Easter holidays.

“With much of the world still on holiday, this will be a quiet start to the week,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of research in Asia at ING. “Increasingly, thoughts will turn to the process of deconfinement, something that we expect will be very slow and phased.”

Wall Street closed out its best week in 45 years on Thursday, thanks to unprecedented efforts by

the Federal Reserve to support the economy through the coronavirus crisis.

Investors and analysts are looking ahead, trying to gauge when shutdowns in many countries might ease now that the number of deaths and new cases is falling or leveling off in some of the hardesthit regions,

Raised

Comments by Dr Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the US, have raised hopes. He has said some parts of the US might be able to reopen as early as next month, while warning that much remains uncertain.

China has begun, cautiously, to reopen activity in regions such as Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province that were shut down during the worst of its outbreak.

However, in Asia some governments are just now tightening restrictions

to try to curb surges in the number of newly confirmed coronavirus infections. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing criticism from some who fear the government has done too little, too late.

This week will bring a slew of first quarter corporate earnings that are likely give an inkling of how badly the pandemic is battering business, though much of the damage has come since the end of March. China is due to report its first quarter GDP data on Friday.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 39.84 points to 2,789.82. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2%, to 23,719.37, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.8% to 8,153.58.

For the week, the S&P 500 jumped 12.1%, its best performance since late 1974.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 107.82 Japanese yen from 108.21 yen on Friday. The euro rose to $1.0952 from $1.0940.