S&P 500 futures increased by 0.01% to $4,396.25, while Dow futures increased by 0.04% to $34,230.
Three-month lows have been reached for oil prices, with the benchmark U.S. crude price declining seven times in the last ten days. On Wednesday, prices continued to decline, reaching $76.66 a barrel. Over the last 30 days, the price of an oil barrel has decreased by more than 7%, and it has decreased by about 5% this week.
Crude prices have dropped to levels last observed in July, prior to supply delays caused by the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Natural gas prices are also falling, falling by over 10% this week. For the year, both natural gas and crude are in the red.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will kick off a conference early on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where many of his colleagues from the Federal Reserve, including Gustavo Suarez, Steve Sharpe, Michael Gibson, and Andreas Lehnert, will give presentations. The keynote address will be delivered by Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John C. Williams.
Asia’s investors are also focusing on the possibility of better China-US ties following talks next week on the fringes of a Pacific Rim summit.
The sessions of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco present a chance for high-ranking officials from the United States and China to repair strained political and commercial relations.
Germany’s DAX fell 0.07% to 15,141.98, while France’s CAC 40 increased by 0.14% to 6,995.98. The FTSE 100 in Britain increased by less than 0.1% to 7,413.84. The Dow Industrials’ future remained unchanged, but the S&P 500’s was down less than 0.1%.
On Wednesday, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% to 3,052.37, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5% to 17,588.46. Any good momentum from the International Monetary Fund’s upgrading of China’s GDP projection was countered by gloom over the country’s worse-than-expected export figures. It increased its estimate of GDP growth to 5.4% in 2023 from 5%, but it also indicated that growth would drop the following year.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 for Japan closed at 32,166.48, down 0.3%. The Kospi of South Korea fell 0.9% to 2,421.62. S&P/ASX 200 in Australia increased by 0.3% to 6,995.40.
The government of Japan’s A1 long-term foreign currency and local currency issuer and local currency senior unsecured ratings were confirmed by Moody’s Investors Service. The prognosis remained unchanged.
“Today’s rating action reflects Moody’s expectation that Japan will be able to continue growing its private sector savings and maintain its formidable credit strengths, which in turn will support Japan’s ability to carry its very large debt burden,” the statement said.
According to Moody’s, Japan’s “structural weaknesses,” such as its ageing population, were the primary causes for concern.
The dismal trade statistics, according to Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, highlights ongoing external obstacles to Asian economic development.
He stated, “Cyclical stocks are struggling to attract sustained interest from investors, who anticipate an eventual deceleration in economic growth, despite the robust U.S. economic momentum observed in the third quarter.”