• Asian shares rebound following sessions of losses
  • Oil prices gain on tightening supplies
  • Egypt’s EGX30 drops 1.2 percent
  • Dollar gains, gold remains unchanged

Global markets

Asian shares rose in early trading on Tuesday following two days of losses.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rebounded 0.3 percent after losing 1.4 percent in the previous session.

Overnight on Wall Street, shares were little changed with the S&P 500 ending with a small loss of 0.08 percent.

Cautious remarks late last week by the U.S. Federal Reserve sent 10-year treasury yields to the lowest since early 2018, triggering concerns about a potential U.S. recession and weighing on global markets in the previous session.

“The U.S. yield curve continues to invert,” Michael Every, Hong Kong-based senior Asia-Pacific strategist at Rabobank told Reuters.

“This is not a healthy sign, as bond-market watchers should know and equity-market obsessives should rapidly learn,” he said in a note. “How much further will this run before we see markets starting to do the same?”

Oil prices

Oil prices rose on tightening supplies.

OPEC issued a list of oil production cuts by its members and other major producers for six months starting January 1, to boost confidence in its oil supply reduction pact.

Oil prices have also been boosted by lower supply from Venezuela, as the U.S. introduced petroleum export sanctions against state-owned Venezuelan energy firm PDVSA.

Brent crude oil futures were at $67.46 per barrel at 0110 GMT, up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $59.31 per barrel, up 49 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last settlement.

Yet analysts said oil prices would likely be higher by now if it wasn’t for a spreading economic slowdown that is expected to start denting fuel consumption, according to a Reuters report.

“Crude prices can’t shake off global growth concerns,” Edward Moya, senior analyst at futures brokerage OANDA told Reuters.

Middle East markets

Egypt’s blue-chip index EGX30 dropped 1.2 percent on Monday. Egyptian Chemical Industries lost 5 percent and Palm Hills Development declined 4.6 percent.

Dubai’s index added 0.6 percent as Emaar Properties rose 2.1 percent and its unit Emaar Malls added 1.1 percent.

The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.5 percent with its largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank gaining 1.1 percent.

The Saudi index gained 0.2 percent, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 0.8 percent and Banque Saudi Fransi increasing 1.1 percent.

Qatar's index added 0.6 percent as Qatar International Islamic Bank added 3.5 percent, after its shareholders approved an increase in its foreign ownership limit to 49 percent from 25 percent.

Kuwait’s premier market index added 0.4 percent, Bahrain’s index dropped 0.5 percent and Oman’s index was mainly flat.

Currencies

The dollar gained against the yen on Tuesday, as risk aversion eased.

The dollar edged up 0.15 percent to 110.13 yen.

Precious metals

Gold prices were mainly unchanged.

Spot gold was unchanged at $1,321.74 per ounce as of 0123 GMT, after touching its highest since Feb. 28 at $1,324.33 in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures were also down 0.1 percent at $1,320.70 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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