By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up Tuesday morning alongside soaring crude oil prices even as investors digested a breakdown in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) talks over output.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.34% by 10:07 PM ET (2:07 AM GMT) and South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.50%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 edged up 0.18% ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s policy decision, due later in the day. RBA is expected to start withdrawing some stimulus measures in the decision, even as the latest outbreak of COVID-19 saw restrictive measures implemented in several cities.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged down 0.17%.
China’s Shanghai Composite inched up 0.04% while the Shenzhen Component was down 0.23%. The country will release its consumer price index and producer price index on Friday.
Investors also kept a wary eye on the market after the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered app stores to remove Didi from their offerings earlier in the week, with the crackdown coming just days after the ride-hailing giant listed in New York.
U.S. markets were closed for a holiday on Monday.
OPEC+ abandoned its latest talks that took place on Monday and were aimed at resolving a worsening dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over output levels.
The talks’ collapse also raised the specter of a price war not dissimilar to the Saudi Arabia-Russia price war that caused the black liquid’s price to enter negative territory in April 2020. The collapse also means that the output hike scheduled for August will not take place, likely leading to a shortage of barrels just as some countries continue their economic recovery from COVID-19.
The inevitable higher energy prices could also further stoke existing inflationary pressures, which could prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to begin asset tapering sooner than expected. Investors now await the minutes from the Fed’s June policy meeting, due on Wednesday, to further understand the central bank’s surprise hawkish turn at that meeting.
On the data front, the U.S. Institute of Supply Management (ISM) non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for June is due later in the day.
The risk of oil at $100 a barrel “is so correlated with short-run inflation that it will make the market very, very edgy, and we know that the Fed is both watching the economic data but also markets,” Coutts & Co. chief investment officer Alan Higgins told Bloomberg.
Elsewhere, the U.K. is set to end social distancing and capacity limits at venues in England from Jul. 19 and finance ministers from the Group of 20, or G20, are due to meet in Venice on Friday.