Global stocks stabilize ahead of European Central Bank meeting despite steep rise in COVID-19 cases in Asia

  • Date: 22-Apr-2021
  • Source: Business Insider
  • Sector:Financial Markets
  • Country:Gulf
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Global stocks stabilize ahead of European Central Bank meeting despite steep rise in COVID-19 cases in Asia

Global stocks held steady on Thursday ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy update and despite COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Europe being extended and cases rising globally.

As COVID-19 cases and deaths have continued to surge after last week saw the highest number of cases so far through the pandemic, lockdown restrictions have been tightened or extended in a number of countries.

India recorded the highest amount of daily cases by any country during the pandemic on Wednesday.

This has mostly impacted oil prices, with Brent crude down 0.9% and WTI down 0.8% on Thursday. This is the third consecutive day oil prices have fallen, as post-pandemic economic recovery concerns in major economies grow. The easing of restrictions in some European countries such as France could not balance out the downwards trend.

A US house panel also pushed a bill that allows for anti-trust lawsuits against OPEC to be filed, but this had little impact on the oil market.

Despite Japan being hit hard by COVID-19 in recent weeks, the Nikkei 225 recovered on Wednesday and was up 2.38% at the end of the trading day. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong and China's Shanghai Composite were little changed on the day,