Oil prices plumbed new lows last week, dropping below $28 per barrel but came back with huge gains by the end of Friday’s session, rallying to above $30 per barrel. Oil soared nearly 8 percent on Friday as a cold snap along the eastern seaboard in the U.S. boosted demand for heating oil and investors took advantage of the lowest prices since 2003 to close out some of their more profitable bets on price declines.
Major Asian markets saw a rebound on Friday, tracking the rally in European and U.S. equities overnight, on the news from the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi. In Japan, the Nikkei tacked on gains of 4.21 percent in morning trade. The Kospi was up 1.67 percent and Down Under, the ASX 200 index added 0.98 percent, buoyed by sharp gains in the energy and materials sectors, up between 2.81 and 3.51 percent.
China’s Shanghai composite was up 36.12 points, or 1.25 percent, to finish at 2,916.60, while the Shenzhen added 26.34 points, or 1.46 percent, to 1,827.33. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 2.90 percent.
Global Markets Up
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 3 percent, rallying 5 percent in two days advancing 2.6 percent and after rising the most in a month.
The S&P 500 jumped 2 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, leaving it higher by 1.4 percent in its first weekly advance since this year but it remains 11 percent below its all-time high set in May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.3 percent, with gains tempered by the biggest one-day slide in American Express Co. since 2009.