Asian stocks mixed, oil falls as Russian attacks escalate

BANGKOK

Stocks were mixed in Asia and oil prices fell on Monday as uncertainty surrounding the war in Ukraine and continued high inflation left investors guessing what to expect.

Tokyo and Sydney advanced while Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai fell. US futures were higher.

With the Federal Reserve due to hold a policy meeting this week, “markets are bracing for two diametrically opposed forces that will cloud the picture,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. “One is geopolitical uncertainty that can trigger further convulsions of ‘risk off’ and the other is a hawkish Fed poised to “raise interest rates by at least 0.25 percentage points.” .

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to continue negotiating with Russia as Russian forces shelled a military training base near the Polish border, killing nine people and injuring dozens. Talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire broke down again on Saturday,

The broadening of Russia’s offensive into western Ukraine comes amid warnings of the growing impact of the conflict. Moody’s Investor Service said it was revising its credit ratings for both countries in light of rising security, economic and financial risks.

The spread of coronavirus outbreaks in China has added to uncertainties, with authorities ordering a lockdown of the technology and manufacturing hub in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, which could worsen supply chain disruptions.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 3.8% to 19,763.69 and the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.9% to 3,247.48.

Chinese stocks have also come under selling pressure due to the threat of delistings of major Chinese companies from US stock exchanges. A report from the state-run Economic Daily newspaper said on Monday that regulators were negotiating to resolve a dispute over auditing rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to require foreign stocks listed in the United States to disclose their ownership structures and audit reports. This is in addition to technology-related sanctions against certain companies.

Wang Sheng, head of the investment banking division of China International Capital Corp, said in an opinion piece that China and the United States should be able to strike a deal.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 25,307.85 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.2% to 7,149.40. The South Korean Kospi fell 0.6% to 2,644.99.

On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.3% to 4,204.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 32,944.19, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.2% to 12,843.81. The Russell 2000 Small Business Index slid 1.6% to 1,979.67.

Global markets have been rocked by dramatic reversals as investors struggle to guess how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will affect the prices of oil, wheat and other commodities produced in the region.

This increases the risk that the US economy will be grappling with a toxic combination of persistently high inflation and stagnant growth. The Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates at its meeting this week as it and other central banks move to stamp out the highest inflation in generations, while trying to avoid triggering a recession raising rates too high or too quickly.

Amid all the uncertainty, US stocks remain around 10% below their peak from earlier this year, while crude oil prices remain more than 40% higher for 2022 so far.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $2.73 to $106.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $3.31 a barrel on Friday to $109.33 a barrel.

Brent crude, the standard for international prices, fell $2.48 to $110.19 a barrel.

The US dollar fell from 117.35 yen to 117.78 Japanese yen. The Euro weakened to $1.0915 from $1.0926.