Covid, Bloomberg, Hong Kong discussed on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia
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Bloomberg quick tape. This is a Bloomberg business flash. Market feeling a little different today about the COVID situation on the mainland yesterday we were talking about the three deaths reported over the weekend. And it caused a little bit of consternation in equity markets, particularly if you look at what happened in Hong Kong, the hang sang at one point yesterday was down by more than 3%. We finished weaker yesterday by about 1.9%. Today, the decline is a very modest with only about two tenths of 1% being lost. The currency market different story here where we have the offshore yuan strengthening against the dollar by around three tenths of 1%. 7 spot one 5 90 against the greenback, the dollar right now week, but bear in mind the dollar did rally quite a bit in the New York session. We had a Bloomberg dollar spot index jumping about 7 tenths of 1%. It seems the market would favor the haven trade because of the concern about the potential for China to tighten COVID restrictions given what I just described over the weekend with those COVID related deaths. If you look at what's going on right now in Tokyo, the nikkei rising by around 9 tenths of 1% were about 40 minutes or so away from the lunch break in Japan, the yen is stronger here at one 41 88 stronger against the dollar by around to two tenths of 1%. Crude oil right now, catching a bid WTI was very little changed in New York. We had Saudi Arabia denying a report in The Wall Street Journal earlier that OPEC is planning to increase production by around 500,000 barrels per day when it meets next week. Now this move, interestingly, if it were to come to pass, would come a day before the EU is set to impose an embargo on Russian crude oil, where trading January crude now is the most active contract up about four tenths of 1% at 80 33. We'll take another look at market action in about 15 minutes. Head Baxter has a look at global news headlines next, Eddie. All right, thank you very much, Doug. You're focusing on the three deaths when you're absolutely right over the weekend in China, which is