Asia shares weaker, oil up; investors weigh Saudi-Houthi escalation

Business Recorder reported that Asian shares dipped a touch on Wednesday, despite US equities hitting fresh peaks. MSCI's broad index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan fell 0.3 per cent, though it is still up 1.5 per cent this month. Oil rose as traders weighed a storm approaching North American producing regions and rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis against heavy Middle Eastern crude shipments.

The S&P 500 hit a fresh record on Tuesday, up about 0.6 per cent, as the Nasdaq and Dow gained 0.45 and 0.5 per cent. US crude rose 1.05 per cent to $90.38 a barrel, while Brent climbed 1.06 per cent to $101.65 per barrel. Vitol's chief executive, Russell Hardy, said about 12 million barrels per day of crude and 2 million of refined products had left the Middle East by tanker over the past seven to 10 days.

Bond markets steadied as heavy selling of French debt eased on Tuesday, after Marine Le Pen pledged spending cuts and a smaller budget deficit. Ten-year French yields retreated by over 11 basis points, narrowing the spread against German bunds to 132 bps from almost 160 last week, according to LSEG data. Traders' odds of a Fed rate increase this month dropped to 19 per cent from about 50 per cent a week before, ahead of Wednesday's release of the September policy minutes.