Oil prices rose for a fourth day on Thursday on worries that a tropical storm may strengthen to become the worst threat to US offshore oil and gas production since 2005, while the euro rose on tough inflation talk from the European Central Bank.
Asian stocks were little changed, but commodity-related shares received a boost from rising metals prices and also from crude prices, which have recovered $7 since hitting a three-month low two weeks ago to trade above $118 a barrel. European stock index futures pointed to a lower market open with instability in the financial sector a key focus.
The euro moved further away from Tuesday's six-month low versus the dollar as ECB officials overnight doused expectations that the next move in interest rates will be lower. Some officials even suggested increases might be needed, despite an economy that is shrinking and perhaps already in a recession. Toyota Motor Corp, the world's biggest automaker, cut its 2009 sales forecast by nearly 7 percent because of severe slowdown in demand in Western markets.
The revised forecast was slightly lower than analysts had expected, but the company's shares ended unchanged. Outside of Japan, stocks in the Asia-Pacific region were up 0.5 percent, but within sight of a 17-month low hit last Thursday, according to an MSCI index. The pan-Asia index was within a point of a two-year low hit a week ago.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped about 1.9 percent, weighed by a 5 percent drop in China Mobile shares on an increasingly more competitive outlook for the world's largest wireless operator. China's main stock index slipped 0.4 percent though conviction was lacking in just about every sector except financials, which continue to be a favourite of investors. The Shanghai composite index is down 52 percent so far this year, the worst performing market in the world.
Gold prices, which have tended to trade in the opposite direction to the US dollar for several weeks, rose 0.8 percent in the spot market to around $832.80 an ounce, having recovered almost $60 since hitting a 2008 low two weeks ago.
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