Stocks were mainly higher in Asia on Monday as Chinese leaders began a major meeting expected to deliver new aid pledges for the world’s second-largest economy.
Oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel after OPEC+ oil-producing countries said they would extend production cuts until the end of the year.
No reason was given for the move, which came ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election.
U.S. benchmark crude gained $1.27 to $70.76 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.30 to $74.70 a barrel.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress meets this week and analysts predicted the government could approve major spending initiatives to stimulate the economy.
“Markets are abuzz with talk of a new stimulus package, driving expectations sky-high and creating a buzz that’s hard to ignore,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 20,540.44, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3% to 3,281.76.
The markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 8,134.60 and Seoul’s Kospi rose 1% to 2,568.85.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.3%.
On Friday, Amazon led U.S. stock indexes higher as a surprisingly weak jobs report, marred by some unusual events, bolstered Wall Street bets for another rate cut next week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,728.80, recovering some of the previous day’s losses, the worst in eight weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 42,052.19, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to 18,239.92.
Amazon climbed 6.2% after posting a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected and was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 higher.
Intel, meanwhile, rose 7.8% despite a bigger-than-expected loss. Revenue exceeded analyst expectations, and the company provided guidance for current-quarter results that also exceeded expectations. Cardinal Health was also one of the market’s bigger winners, rising 7% after beating analysts’ earnings and revenue expectations in the latest quarter. It also raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year, which is only in the second quarter.
They helped offset a 1.2% decline for Apple, which said it expects sales growth in the key holiday quarter to be in the low-to-mid single digits. That was lower than several analysts’ expectations.
Treasury yields rose after a long-awaited report said U.S. employers added just 12,000 workers to their payrolls last month, far fewer than the 115,000 economists expected or the 223,00 jobs employers created in September.
