International Business: Asian stocks, oil sink as US weighs reserves release – Gulf Digital News

International Business: Asian stocks, oil sink as US weighs reserves release – Gulf Digital News

Oil prices dove on Thursday as the United States weighed its largest-ever drawdown from its oil reserves, while Asian stocks fell as China reported weak manufacturing data and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine dragged on.

The United States is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from strategic reserves, four U.S. sources said, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices that have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine late last month.

Brent crude futures were down 4.9% at $107.89 a barrel and US crude futures fell more than 5% to $101.37 a barrel by midday.

Lower oil prices looked set boost European and US markets at the open with European futures rising 0.49%, Germany's DAX futures gaining 0.61%, Nasdaq futures up 0.4% and S&P500 futures 0.15% higher.

But shares in Asia were hurt by data showing that activity in China's the factory and services sectors swung into negative territory in March, contracting simultaneously for the first time since the peak of the country's COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.56%, led by a 1% drop for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI), and a 0.77% decline for Chinese blue chips.

"The sharp