- Shares in Asia slipped in Wednesday morning trade.
- In the oil markets, the June contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) clawed back some Tuesday losses as it jumped 18.93% to $13.76 per barrel, after falling more than 40% on Tuesday. U.S. crude prices have seen sharp losses in recent days.
Stocks in Asia Pacific declined in Wednesday morning trade on the back of sharp losses in the oil markets overnight.
Mainland Chinese stocks slipped in early trade, with the Shanghai composite down 0.41% while the Shenzhen composite dipped 0.495%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.36% in early trade while the Topix index slipped 0.93%.
South Korea's Kospi also dropped 1.55% while the Kosdaq index shed 0.95%. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.85%.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.91% lower.
In the oil markets, the June contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) clawed back some Tuesday losses as it jumped 11.32% to $12.88 per barrel, after falling more than 40% on Tuesday. U.S. crude prices have seen sharp losses in recent days.
The May contract for WTI — which expired Tuesday — slid into negative prices earlier this week, meaning traders would pay for others to take the oil off their hands. The May contract clawed back into the black on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, international Brent crude futures fell 2.43% to $18.86 per barrel, having plunged from levels above $24 per barrel on Tuesday.
"The oil reality check has triggered a reassessment across risk assets," Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign exchange strategist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 100.221 after seeing levels below 99.5 last week.
The Japanese yen traded at 107.82 per dollar after weakening from levels below 107.6 yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6292 following a decline from levels above $0.635 seen earlier this week.
Source: cnbc.com
