Asian Shares slipped on Friday; oil and currencies

Asian shares slipped on Friday, erasing early gains, while gold shone and oil prices spiked after U.S. air strikes in Iraq killed a top Iranian commander, heightening geopolitical tensions.

Asian Shares

  • MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS had touched its highest point since June 15, 2018 in early trade, but fell after reports of the air strike emerged. It was last down 0.16%.
  • European shares were set to follow their Asian counterparts lower.
  • Pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures STXEc1 shed 0.66% to 3,757.
  • German DAX futures FDXc1 were down 0.6% to 13,303.5.
  • FTSE futures FFIc1 gave up 0.42% to 7,514.
  • China’s CSI300 index, one of the world’s best-performing indexes last year, struggled to stay in positive territory but was last down about 0.2%. Australian shares finished up 0.64%, but off earlier highs.

Currency Markets

  • In currency markets, the dollar weakened as investors snapped up safe-haven yen.
  • The greenback fell 0.42% against the Japanese currency to 108.11.
  • The dollar was little changed against the euro at $1.1167.
  • The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the dollar against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.04% at 96.808.

Oil Prices

  • The global benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 shot 2.97% higher to $68.22 per barrel.
  • U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 jumped 2.81% to $62.90 per barrel.

Reuters.com

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