• Asian shares track Wall Street higher
  • Oil prices drop on rising U.S. crude stockpiles
  • Tadawul gains 1.7 percent
  • Dollar, gold prices retreat

Global markets

Asian shares rose on Thursday after China confirmed it will hold trade talks with the United States in early October.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.8 percent, while the Shanghai composite index surged 1.8 percent. Japan’s Nikkei added 2.4 percent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237.45 points, or 0.91 percent, to 26,355.47, the S&P 500 gained 31.51 points, or 1.08 percent, to 2,937.78, and the Nasdaq Composite added 102.72 points, or 1.3 percent, to 7,976.88.

Oil prices

Oil prices drop after data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed that U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week, against analyst expectations of a decline.

Brent crude was down 18 cents, or 0.3%, at $60.52 a barrel by 0040 GMT. On Wednesday, Brent rose 4.2 percent.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 23 cents, or 0.4%, at $56.03 a barrel, having risen 4.3% the previous session, the biggest percentage gain in nearly two months.

“Oil bulls can’t seemingly catch a break after the rally sapping surprising build in the American Petroleum Institute oil inventory survey has throttled WTI upward momentum dead in its tracks,” Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader, told Reuters.

Middle East markets

In Saudi Arabia, the index gained 1.7 percent on Wednesday. Al Rajhi Bank was up 2.7 percent and National Commercial Bank, the country's largest lender, surged 4.7 percent.

Dubai’s index edged up 0.1 percent, with Emirates NBD gaining 0.7 percent, extending its gains for a third day in a row.

The Abu Dhabi index added 0.4 percent led by a 0.9 percent rise in the country's largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank and a 1.4 percent gain in Aldar Properties.

In Qatar, the index edged down 0.1 percent with Industries Qatar declining 1.5 percent.

Egypt's blue-chip index EGX30 dropped 1.1 percent as the country's largest lender Commercial International Bank fell 0.7 percent and Talaat Mostafa climbed 3.2 percent.

Kuwait’s premier market index edged down 0.2 percent while Bahrain’s and Oman’s indices fell 0.1 percent.

Currencies

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last down 0.57 percent on Wednesday.

Precious metals

Gold prices dropped on Thursday.

Spot gold was 0.5 percent lower at $1,544.66 per ounce at 0133 GMT. It had touched $1,557 on Wednesday, a fresh peak since April 2013.

U.S. gold futures were down 0.2 percent at $1,557.8 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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