Asian Shares Fall, Europe, Hong Kong Closed After Easter – By Yuri Kageyama (Associated Press) / April 13 2020
Asian shares have fallen and crude prices lost earlier gains following an agreement by OPEC and other oil producing nations to cut output in line with collapsing demand due to the pandemic.
TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mostly lower Monday in Asia while crude prices lost earlier gains that had come after OPEC and other oil producing nations agreed to cut output to reflect the collapse of demand due to the pandemic.
Trading was muted with European trading closed the day after Easter Sunday. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with the future for the Dow industrials slipping 1.4% to 23,277.50. The S&P 500 future fell 1.5% to 2,738.88.
Markets in Hong Kong and Sydney were also closed.
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.
U.S. benchmark crude initially jumped more than $1 but then lost some ground, gaining just 6 cents by late afternoon to $22.82 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, fell 33 cents to $31.15 per barrel.
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.
Conitnue to article: https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-04-12/asian-shares-fall-oil-gains-after-opec-plus-strikes-deal
