02
03/11
Oil, Gold Gain, Asian Stocks Decline as Tensions Escalate in Middle East
Oil climbed while Asian stocks declined for the first time in four days amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Crude for March delivery jumped 1.3 percent in New York to $87.34 a barrel as of 9:20 a.m. in Tokyo. Gold rose 0.2 percent, pacing a rally among precious metals. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.1 percent to 139.74, halting a three-day, 1.6 percent advance. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.1 percent.
Libyan security forces attacked anti-government protestors, drawing condemnation from the U.S. and Europe as the North African country became the focal point of demonstrations after violence flared in Yemen, Djibouti and Bahrain. In China, authorities acted to halt an online call for a “Jasmine Revolution,” while the central bank announced after the close of markets on Feb. 18 an increase in lenders’ reserve ratios.
“You’ve got to be very concerned, particularly because it can affect the oil price, and if you have the oil price spike up another $20, $30, you could reenter a global recession,” Bill Belchere, global chief economist at Mirae Asset Securities, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong.
Crude earlier rose as much as 1.5 percent to $87.50 in New York. Brent crude gained 0.9 percent in London. Amid the widening revolt in Libya, Africa’s biggest holder of crude oil reserves, leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son went on state television to warn that a civil war would risk the country’s oil wealth and invite a return of colonial powers.
Death Toll Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, in a broadcast carried on U.S. cable networks, said the Libyan army made errors in handling anti- government protests and that almost 100 people had been killed, less than half the toll compiled by Human Rights Watch. He also said that some demonstrators had captured military equipment.
Gold for immediate delivery rose to 1,391.65 an ounce. Silver climbed 0.4 percent.
About three stocks fell for every two that gained on MSCI’s Asian index. The gauge rose 3 percent last week, its biggest weekly advance since the period ended Dec. 3.
BlueScope Steel Ltd., Australia’s largest steelmaker, dropped 4.2 percent after saying its first-half loss widened. Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., a South Korean builder that gets about 38 percent of its revenue from the Middle East, declined 2.1 percent.
“Investors are looking to see whether concern over the situation in the Middle East will overshadow optimism about the U.S. economic outlook,” said Kazuhiro Takahashi, a general manager at Tokyo-based Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Co.