• Brent prices hover near $59 a barrel
  • Asian shares find support in easing trade tensions
  • Most Middle East markets gain
  • Dollar, gold prices remain unchanged

Oil prices

Oil prices were boosted early on Tuesday on easing trade tensions between the United States and China.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he believed China was sincere about wanting to reach a deal, while Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said China was willing to resolve the dispute through “calm” negotiations, settling global markets.

“For now, the street is in thrall to the President’s comments, with financial markets doing abrupt changes of direction on his words that wouldn’t look out of place in Fast and the Furious film,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, told Reuters.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up by 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $58.95 a barrel by 0214 GMT, after falling 1 percent in the previous session, dropping for a third day in a row.

U.S. crude CLc1 was up by 30 cents or 0.6 percent at $53.94 a barrel, having also dropped 1 percent on Monday for a fourth day of declines.

Global markets

Asian shares also rose on easing trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 percent after dropping 1.3 percent the previous day.

“There is still a large element of uncertainty regarding the U.S.-China trade dispute. It remains difficult to foresee a resolution, and this will continue to weigh on equity market sentiment,” Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX and equity strategist at Bank Of America Merrill Lynch, told Reuters.

“Apart from the trade war, the equity markets also have to keep an eye on Brexit proceedings, monetary policy of key players such as the European Central Bank and moves in the Chinese yuan,” Yamada added.

Middle East markets

Stock markets in the region mostly closed higher on Monday.

The Saudi index was up 0.2 percent with Banque Saudi Fransi gaining 2.1 percent and Saudi Electricity adding 2.8 percent.

Dubai's index closed 0.5 percent higher, led by a 1 percent rise in the emirate's blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and 0.6 percent gain in Dubai Islamic Bank.

Abu Dhabi’s index gained 0.6 percent, with Emirates Telecom increasing 0.6 percent and market heavyweight First Abu Dhabi Bank edging up 0.5 percent.

The Qatari index fell 0.3 percent with the Gulf's biggest lender Qatar National Bank shedding 1% and Industries Qatar dropping 1.4 percent.

Egypt's blue-chip index fell 0.4 percent with its top lender Commercial International Bank dropping 1.2 percent.

Kuwait’s premier market index rose 0.5 percent while Bahrain’s index edged 0.2 percent lower and Oman’s index was mainly flat.

Currencies

The dollar was mainly unchanged.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies fell 0.06 percent to 97.960.

Precious metals

Gold prices firmed early on Tuesday.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent to $1,528.10 per ounce, as of 0125 GMT.

U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,537.50 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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