Asian Stocks Fall with Oil Prices

The stock and financial markets in Asia and the Pacific were mostly lower this morning as energy play fell will the price of crude oil. This put pressure on stocks.

In Australia, the S&P ASX 200 lost 0.5 percent with the energy sub-sector losing over 1.25 percent. The Japanese Nikkei 225 lost 0.29 percent by mid-morning trade. However, he South Korean Kospi Composite Index was up 0.25 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index lost over one percent and shares on mainland China were lower as both the Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite fell 0.3 and 0.25 percent, respectively.

Oil stocks in the region were under heavy selling pressure this morning. Shares of Santos were down 1.8 percent and Oil Search fell over two percent. Woodside Petroleum slipped 1.6 percent and Fuji Oil, in Japan, was down 0.5 percent. In South Korea, shares of S-Oil lost over 2.4 percent. In Hong Kong, CNOOC lost over 3.6 percent and shares of PetroChina were down 2.5 percent.

Two energy plays, bucked the downtrend. Inpex, up 0.29 percent and Japan Petroleum, up 0.1 percent for the day.

During Asian trade hours, the price of the black gold, crude oil, was flat after selling off more than one percent in US trade hours. Currently, both Brent and crude oil are trading below $50 per barrel. There are concerns rising that OPEC will not cut production at their cartel meeting in November as Iran is signally they will not agree to any deal.

Looking at the currency markets, this morning, the US Dollar index was up 0.09 percent to 98.71. Is this run higher running out of steam? At least in the near term. That is a question for right now. The EUR/USD Forex market is trading, as of 11:00 am HK time, at $1.0908. This is slightly higher than its previous close at $1.0907.

Looking at the Australian Dollar, the AUD/USD Forex pair is trading at $0.7625 this morning. This is down from the levels near $0.77 reached yesterday after better-than-expected inflation data crossed the wires. The chances the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut rates has diminished.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the yen is trading near the ¥104 pivot level in the USD/JPY Forex market. This morning this market is at 104.60 as of 11:05 am HK time. This means the Dollar is slightly stronger than the level of 104.46, which it closed at on Wednesday.