In Asia stocks fell on Monday as weak oil prices weighed on sentiment while the dollar got a lift against its peers as the differences in policy directions between the world’s top central banks became starker. The Nikkei index rose more than 2% to 16,564.62 in early afternoon trade on Tuesday after Japan’s finance minister said the government will intervene if the yen’s “one-sided” rise persists.
The dollar/yen rose roughly 0.4% to 108.795 yen after rising more than 1% on Monday. The euro rose 0.4% to a near two-week high of 123.83 yen and it was a touch softer against the greenback at $1.1380. The Aussie fell to a two-month low of $0.7300 early on Tuesday but was last up a modest 0.2 percent at $0.7327.
Oil prices were steady as brimming inventories and a looming refined products glut offset supply disruptions in Canada and elsewhere that have taken more than 2 million barrels a day of production out of the market. International Brent crude futures were trading at $43.70 per barrel, up 7 cents from their last settlement. U.S. crude futures were trading at $43.34 per barrel, down 10 cents. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said it expected a decline in U.S. oil production by 650,000 bpd this year.
In the US, stocks ended mixed on Monday after a rally in Allergan Plc (NYSE:AGN) and other healthcare companies offset a decline in energy stocks. The S&P500 edged up 0.08% to 2,058.69. Allergan rose 5.98%. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) said it still expected its $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan’s generic drug business to close in June. Shares of Lending Club Corp (NYSE:LC) lost 34.93%. The chief executive officer of the world’s biggest online lending platform resigned following an internal probe.
Economic Calendar
- 22:00 GMT+1 NZD RBNZ Financial Stability Report
- 22:05 GMT+1 NZD RBNZ Gov Wheeler Speaks
UK Earnings
- EasyJet (LON:EZJ) – H1 revenue GBP 1.77bln vs. Exp GBP 1.83bln. H1 pretax loss GBP 24mln vs. Exp loss of GBP 25.7mln. H1 revenue per seat GBP 51.29. Co state they are well placed to grow revenue and profit this FY.
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