This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hope-dashed-asian-shares-fall-after-wall-street-loses-rally/2020/04/23/05e6e976-85d8-11ea-81a3-9690c9881111_story.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_world

The article has changed 13 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Stocks open higher on Wall Street at the end of a bumpy week Stocks hold steady on Wall Street following tumultuous week
(32 minutes later)
NEW YORK — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street, but not enough to erase the market’s losses for the week. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% in early trading Friday. Investors were encouraged to see the latest coronavirus relief package pass the House. The bill, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign later Friday, provides $484 billion to employers and hospitals. The pandemic has already claimed almost 50,000 American lives and 1 in 6 U.S. jobs. The price of oil rose again after cratering earlier this week, but it’s still not nearly high enough to bring relief to the battered U.S. energy sector. NEW YORK — Stocks are holding steady in early trading Friday as Wall Street nears the end of its tumultuous week.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below: The S&P 500 was up 0.2% after the first 20 minutes of trading, following up on modest losses for stocks in Europe and Asia. The bond market was quiet, while crude prices climbed again.
Global stock markets mostly fell on Friday as hopes faded for a quick recovery from the global coronavirus pandemic. The calm opening to trading in U.S. markets belies what’s been a wild week. From Monday’s astonishing plummet for the oil market to Thursday’s sudden disappearance of a morning stock rally, markets pinballed as the mood swung from fear to hope and back again.
Investors looked past new economic relief measures in the United States and Europe to focus on the likelihood that reopening economies might take longer than expected. Through it all, reports piled higher showing the damage done to the economy by the coronavirus pandemic is even worse than feared. It’s so severe that a heavily divided Congress has reached bipartisan agreement on massive support for the economy, and President Donald Trump is set to sign a bill Friday to send another nearly $500 billion in loans to small businesses and aid for hospitals.
After losses in much of Asia, European stocks traded lower. France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.4% to 4,433, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.4% to 10,467. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.5% to 5,799. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 71 points, or 0.3%, to 23,587, as of 9:53 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq was down 0.2%.
Wall Street appeared poised for small gains, however, with the futures for the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 both up 0.8%. Energy stocks again had some of the market’s biggest gains after oil prices pulled higher. Exxon Mobil climbed 2.8% and Schlumberger jumped 5.1%. Energy stocks overall in the S&P 500 rose 1.4%, double the gain of any of the other 10 sectors that make up the index.
Market sentiment appears fragile as attention shifts to the economic damage the world is likely to suffer because of the pandemic, says Prakash Sakpal and Nicholas Mapa, economists at ING. A barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June rose 7.5% to $17.73. It had dropped as low as $6.50 earlier this week amid worries that oil storage tanks are close to topping out amid a collapse in demand. In one corner of the U.S. oil market, prices even dropped below zero momentarily.
A report from the Financial Times that said an antiviral drug failed to improve conditions in patients in a Chinese clinical trial cast a shadow over hopes it might turn out to be a potential treatment for coronavirus patients. Even with its early gains Friday, the S&P 500 remains on track for a loss this week, which would snap its first two-week winning streak since the coronavirus outbreak caused stocks to start selling off in February.
The report cited documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization. Researchers said the sample size was too small to draw scientifically valid conclusions and the trial ended early. The Foster City, Calif.-based company behind the drug, Gilead Sciences, said the data represented “inappropriate characterizations” of the China study. Stocks have been generally rallying since late March on promises for massive aid from Congress and the Federal Reserve, along with more recent hopes that the outbreak may be leveling off and could lead parts of the economy to reopen.
“Investors will continue to be monitoring developments on the COVID-19 front with a setback on clinical testing for a treatment to the virus,” they said in a commentary. But many professional investors have been skeptical of the rally. They say that there’s still too much uncertainty about how long the recession will last and that attempts to reopen the economy could backfire and trigger more waves of infections if they’re premature.
Market players are also focusing on upcoming policy meetings at the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank for signs of what they may say about the state of global economies that appear on the brink of collapse. The U.S. and EU on Thursday approved economic relief packages worth about $500 billion each. The S&P 500 is down about 17% from its record in February after roughly halving its loss since late March.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.9% to finish at 19,262.00. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3% to 1,889.01, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 5,242.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 23,831.33, while the Shanghai Composite lost 1.1% to 2,808.53. In Europe, the German DAX lost 0.6%, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.4% and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.4%. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.9%, South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.6%.
In India, the Sensex lost 0.5% to 31,689.62. Shares fell in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at its low level of 0.61%.
The price of oil continued a recovery from a massive crash earlier this week. U.S. benchmark crude rose 41 cents to $16.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 19.7% to settle at $16.50 a barrel. It has recovered after falling below $12 Monday, though it remains well below the roughly $60 level where it began the year.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 66 cents to $25.45 a barrel.
The dollar inched up to 107.59 Japanese yen from 107.50 yen Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0789 from $1.0777.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.