Asian markets failed to find themselves in a meaningful rebound territory on Thursday even as oil prices rose one percent. The Shanghai composite gained 0.29 percent and the Shenzen composite rose 0.518 percent though South Korea’s Kospi index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index both fell, 0.23 and 0.48 percent respectively. In Wednesday’s U.S. session the Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 all closed down, posting a seventh consecutive day of losses, the longest losing streak in five years.
Oil futures rose during Thursday’s Asian session, with U.S. crude futures up to $45.79 per barrel, nearly a one percent increase. Bent futures rose 1.24 percent to $47.44 per barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration announced yesterday that crude inventories rose 14.4 million barrels last week, higher than the one million barrels expected.
Fed Announcement
The Federal Reserve ended its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday with an announcement that it would keep interest rates steady at 0.25-0.5 percent. The Fed also acknowledged that the possibility of a rate hike soon is quite likely.
The dollar continued to weaken during Thursday’s Asian session, sliding 0.6 percent to 102.71 yen, down from last week’s high of 104. The Australian dollar also strengthened against its American counterpart, hitting $0.7678 on Thursday. The euro gained 0.2 percent to hit $1.1116. According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has maintained her 6-point lead over adversary Donald Trump, despite ongoing woes from the FBI, but the shaky markets indicate that traders are still concerned about a potential Trump victory.