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- Oil prices drop again on Monday
- Asian shares follow Wall Street higher
- Most Middle East markets drop on Sunday
- Dollar and gold steady
Oil prices
Oil prices dropped again on Monday after retreating on Friday, following previous sessions of gains last week.
United States President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he had called OPEC and told the cartel to lower crude prices.
According to a Reuters report, ANZ bank said on Monday oil prices “took a hit after President Trump indicated he had spoken with Saudi Arabia about reducing the impact of lower Iranian oil exports by increasing flows elsewhere.”
Brent crude futures were at $71.80 per barrel at 0215 GMT, down 35 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $62.91 per barrel, down 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their previous settlement.
Global markets
Asian shares rose early on Monday, tracking gains on Wall Street from Friday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.38 percent, while Chinese blue-chips jumped 1 percent after losing 5.6 percent last week.
“Investors are still looking for direction in terms of growth, but at the same time there is still quite a lot of uncertainty” on U.S.-China trade and the U.S. dollar, Joanne Goh, equity strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, told Reuters.
“A strong U.S. dollar doesn’t really bode well for Asian markets,” she added.
On Friday on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24.46 points, or 0.09%, to 26,486.54, the S&P 500 gained 4.43 points, or 0.15%, to 2,930.6 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 8.84 points, or 0.11%, to 8,109.84.
Middle East markets
A drop in oil prices weighed on Middle East markets on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia’s index edged 0.1 percent lower as Samba Financial Group ended 1.6 percent lower and Al Rajhi Bank dropped 1.32 percent.
Dubai's stock index was 0.42 percent lower, weighed down by a 1 percent fall in Emaar Properties. While Dubai Investments fell 5.4 percent.
Abu Dhabi stocks were 0.21 percent lower as First Abu Dhabi Bank fell 0.36 percent.
Qatar's stock exchange was down 0.42 percent, pulled down by a 1.1 percent fall in Qatar National Bank.
Egypt's stock market was closed for a public holiday, Kuwait’s premier market index dropped 1.4 percent while Bahrain’s index edged 0.1 percent higher and Oman’s index dropped 0.3 percent.
Currencies
The dollar was mainly flat on Monday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, turned 0.03 percent lower to 97.981.
Precious metals
Gold prices were mainly unchanged early on Monday.
Spot gold was steady at $1,285.59 per ounce at 0123 GMT and U.S. gold futures were also firm at $1,287.70 an ounce.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)
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