Stock Markets Seek Stability after Selloff

Asian stock indexes were broadly higher on Monday as markets sought stability after last week’s unexpected volatility. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.88 percent as of 3 p.m. HK/SIN, South Korea’s Kopsi was up 0.91 percent and MSCI’s broadest index of shares outside Japan closed over 1 percent higher after plummeting more than 7 percent last week. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

Asian markets seemed to follow U.S. futures higher after Wall Street rose on Friday and continued to spark optimism over the weekend. Earlier last week saw steep losses on Wall Street after investors expressed concerns over rising interest rates. The S&P 500 declined 5.2 percent last week, its biggest decline since January 2016, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its worst intraday index point decline in history last Monday. Despite Friday’s reversal, Wall Street marked the worst week in two years last week, erasing the gains posted since the start of the year.

Commodity Movements

Oil prices also headed higher to start the week with U.S. WTI futures up 70 cents per barrel to $59.90 and Brent crude futures up 65 cents per barrel to $63.44. The oil price increases came after crude posted its biggest two-year loss last week during the market slide. Oil prices seemed to firm nearly immediately when global stock markets started to head higher on Friday but will still come under pressure from rising U.S. production. Hughes Energy Services reported on Friday that U.S. energy companies added 26 rigs last week to bring the count to 791, the highest since April 2015.

Sara Patterson
Sara Patterson has a Master’s Degree in political science and enjoys analyzing both current events and the international markets to get a fuller perspective of the currency market. Before turning to financial writing, she taught English writing skills to high-school age students. Sara’s work has been published on various financial and Forex blogs.