Oil ticks up, but on track for weekly loss on recession fears
Oil prices edged higher on Friday but were on track for a weekly decline amid fears of sharp interest rate hikes that would slam global growth and hit fuel demand.
Brent crude futures were up 56 cents, or 0.6%, to $91.40 a barrel as at 0610 GMT, but were down 1.5% for the week so far.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $85.52 a barrel, but were down 1.4% on a weekly basis.
“Today’s morning rebound for oil prices can only be described as a short-term correction, as the Fed will raise interest rates by 75bp or 100bp next week,” said Leon Li, an analyst at CMC Markets.
U.S. SEC’s crypto guidelines push up costs for lenders, disrupting projects
Banks’ cryptocurrency projects have been upended by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accounting guidance that would make it too capital-intensive for lenders to hold crypto tokens on behalf of clients, according to more than half a dozen people with knowledge of the matter.
A slew of lenders including U.S. Bancorp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co, Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn), BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY) and State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) offer or are working on crypto products and services for clients in a bid to tap in to the $1 trillion crypto market, according to their public statements and media reports.
But on March 31, the SEC said public companies that hold crypto assets on behalf of clients or others must account for them as liabilities on their balance sheets due to their technological, legal and regulatory risks. By early afternoon, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 1.2%, in part helped by a fresh round of weakness in the Japanese yen.
Asian Stocks Slammed by Rate Hike Expectations, Recession Concerns
Asian stock markets tumbled on Friday, with most regional indexes headed for weekly losses amid growing expectations of hawkish moves by the Federal Reserve and fears of a global recession.
China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes were among the worst performers for the day, sinking more than 1% each. Heavyweight real estate stocks weighed the most on the two after data showed Chinese house prices fell at their worst pace in seven years.
Losses in real estate stocks also spilled over into Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which shed 0.6%.
Despite data showing unexpected growth in China’s industrial production and retail sales, Chinese stocks were set to lose more than 3% this week, amid growing concerns over economic growth in the country. Beijing’s strict zero-COVID policy has taken a heavy toll on China’s economy this year.
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