Bangkok: Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday after a worldwide slump for financial markets spurred by worries about how badly the omicron variant, inflation and other forces will hit the world economy.
Tokyo gained nearly 2 per cent and other benchmarks in Asia also were higher.
Much of the concern over the outlook has been driven by the omicron variant of coronavirus.
Cases have skyrocketed in Europe and in the US, federal health officials have announced it accounted for 73 per cent of new infections last week, a nearly six-fold increase in only seven days.
In Asia, cases of coronavirus have surged in Australia and South Korea, as governments tighten precautions to prevent or curb outbreaks.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 2% to 28,496.83 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.3% to 22,798.23. In Seoul, the Kospi gained 0.3% to 2,972.79, while the Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.2% to 3,601.53. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.4% to 7,323.90.
Shares fell around the world on Monday. Stocks of oil producers helped lead the way lower after the price of U.S. crude fell 3.7% on concerns the newest coronanvirus variant could lead factories, airplanes and drivers to burn less fuel.
Omicron may be the scariest force hitting markets, but it’s not the only one.
A proposed 2 trillion spending program by the U.S. government took a potential death blow over the weekend when an influential senator said he could not support it.
Markets are also still absorbing last week’s momentous move by the Federal Reserve to more quickly remove the aid it’s throwing at the economy, because of rising inflation.
They all combined to drag the benchmark S&P 500 1.1% lower to 4,568.02. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%, to 34,932.16. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.2%, to 14,980.94.
Smaller company stocks fared worse than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index fell 1.6%, to 2,139.87.
Occidental Petroleum slid 3.8%, leading a long list of losing oil stocks. Producers of raw materials, technology companies and financial stocks also fell amid the omicron worries. Steelmaker Nucor lost 5.8%, Microsoft slid 1.2% and Synchrony Financial, which offers store-brand credit cards and other financial products, dropped 5.2%.
The Dutch government began a tough nationwide lockdown on Sunday, while a U.K. official on Monday said he could not guarantee new restrictions would not be announced this week. The Natural History Museum, one of London’s leading attractions, said Monday it was closing for a week because of front-of-house staff shortages.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden will announce on Tuesday new steps he is taking, while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated, the White House press secretary said over the weekend.
Another feared outcome of the omicron variant is that it could push inflation even higher and if it leads to closures at ports, factories and other key points of the long global supply chains leading to customers could worsen already ensnarled operations.
Such troubles helped drive prices at the consumer level in November up 6.8% from a year earlier, the fastest inflation in nearly four decades.
But some economists argue that omicron could have the opposite effect: If the variant leads to lockdowns or scares consumers into staying home, economic activity could slow, and with it, the surging demand that has overwhelmed supply chains and driven up consumer prices.
The worst-case scenario would see the economy decelerate without providing relief from already built-in inflation.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 113.65 Japanese yen from 113.61 yen. The euro strengthened to 1.1286 from 1.1283.