Asian shares rose moderately Thursday following a rally on Wall Street and even oil prices recovering from their recent plunge to zero.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225
NIK,
+1.52%
added 0.8% in morning trading, while South Korea’s Kospi
180721,
+0.98%
rose 0.6%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
-0.07%
also added 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HSI,
+0.33%
edged up 0.1%, while the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP,
-0.19%
was about flat.
Prakash Sakpal and Nicholas Mapa, economists at ING, said a rise in oil prices, which have been crashing, will help Asian shares somewhat.
“But rising COVID-19 cases in the region will likely cap any rally,” they said in a commentary.
Investors are still bracing for a severe, painfully deep recession after businesses shut down worldwide in hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus. U.S. stocks were down by roughly a third a month ago on that expectation. Now, even as depressing economic and health reports pile up, some investors are looking ahead to the prospect of parts of the economy reopening as infections level off in some areas.
“Right now, it’s about the economy beginning to open, even at the margins,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. “We’re watching Germany, the largest economy in Europe, begin to open. What this suggests is if things go well in these economies, we’re going to see more states begin to open, and perhaps open more broadly.”
The S&P 500
SPX,
+2.29%
rose 62.75 points, or 2.3%, to 2,799.31 and trimmed its loss for the week to 2.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.98%
climbed 456.94, or 2%, to 23,475.82, and the Nasdaq composite
COMP,
+2.80%
picked up 232.15, or 2.8%, to 8,495.38.
Benchmark crude
CLM20,
+7.11%
added 41 cents to $14.19 a barrel. The price of a barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June jumped 19% to settle at $13.78 on Wednesday. Brent crude
BRNM20,
+5.05%
, the international standard, rose 47 cents to $20.84 per barrel.
The dollar
USDJPY,
+0.04%
rose to 107.75 Japanese yen from 107.66 yen Wednesday.
