Asian Markets Slide with Oil and the Dollar Gains

The financial stock markets in the Asian and Pacific Rim were all lower this morning as the price of oil slide during early trading session. Also, the US Dollar is now at a thirteen year high. The only exception to a red day in Asia was the Australian stock bourse which edged up higher.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was down marginally after retracing losses of better than 0.4 percent. Overall the Japanese index closed the day unchanged. The Japanese headline stock bourse has been on a five day streak of gains and is up ten percent since Donald Trump won the US Presidency.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite Index close a slightly positive day rising 0.05%. There was a planned delay of on hour due to the national college entrance exams. In Hong Kong, stocks fell 0.05 percent on the Hang Seng Composite.

The Australian stock exchange, the S&P ASX200, bucked the downtrend and was up 0.20 percent. It retraced losses of 0.3 percent earlier in the day. The Australian benchmark saw gains in the energy sub-index, which was up 1.6 percent. Its heavily weighted financials sub-index was down 0.36 percent on the day.

During the Asian trade hours, US WTI Crude futures fell 0.2 percent to $45.49 per barrel before retrace up to trade positively at 45.69 up 0.28%. The global benchmark Brent crude lost 0.19 percent to trade at $46.54 per barrel. This weighed on heavily on oil plays like Santos, down almost three percent, Woodside Petroleum shed over two percent and Oil Search lost over one percent.

Oil prices were under pressure thanks to a US economic data release from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) which showed that crude inventories in the world’s largest economy climbed by 5.3 million barrels last week. Analysts expected a clime of 1.5 million barrels.

Turning our attention to the Forex markets, the US Dollar is trading at a level not seen in nearly 13 years. The US Dollar index is trading at 100.15 at 0900 am GMT time. It had hit a high of 100.57 earlier in the session. This level has not been seen since April 2003.

This morning, the Japanese yen tracked higher against the Dollar putting pressure on exporting plays which brought the Nikkei lower. As of 0915 am GMT time, the USD/JPY Forex market is trading at 109.06.