Tokyo, Oct 3 (BNA): Oil jumped on Monday as OPEC+ considers production cuts this week, while Asian stocks mixed with holidays in the Asia-Pacific region likely to lead to weak trades.
US crude rose 3.01% to $81.88 a barrel after OPEC+ sources told Reuters that oil production could fall by 500,000-1 million barrels per day. Brent crude rose 2.95% to $87.65 a barrel, according to Reuters reports.
On the first trading day of this quarter, the broadest index of MSCI Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.43%, on track to decline for the fourth consecutive session.
In Australia, where some states celebrate a public holiday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 0.15%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down 0.64%.
However, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.72% after upbeat quarterly earnings from Mimasu Semiconductor boosted chip stocks.
South Korea has a national holiday on Monday, while China has just entered Golden Week, and Hong Kong has a holiday on Tuesday.
“In light of the holidays, trading is likely to be thin,” Robert Carnell, head of regional research at ING, said in a note.
The dollar was trading flat against the yen at 144.75 after hitting a high of 144.89 overnight. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said this morning that the government will take “decisive steps” to prevent sharp moves in the currency.
Later in the day the focus will be on the September data of the US ISM Manufacturing Index.
“ISM manufacturing is unlikely to impact optimism about the US economy, which has been increasing further with positive economic indicators released over the past few weeks,” Redmond Wong, market analyst at Saxo Bank, wrote in a research note.
Tuesday will see the Reserve Bank of Australia meeting, with markets widely anticipating a 50bp rate hike, as well as the release of CPI inflation data from Japan.
Spot gold rose 0.47% to $1,667.2208 an ounce.
Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell 1.15% to $19,200.