Market Report - Oil Surge Hits Asian Markets

CHAN:
Oil prices jumped on signs U.S. inventories are falling, hitting energy-dependent firms across Asia Thursday. A $3 rise put per barrel costs still far below record highs, but spooked investors about the impact on the global economy and some airlines.

Asian financial markets were mixed, with Korean Air reporting its first quarterly operating loss in five years Thursday, hit by higher oil and slowing demand.

KAL, also the world's largest air cargo carrier, posted a $112 million operating loss, its worst since the SARS crisis hit Asia.

Some firms like Japanese trading houses and Australian miner BHP, seen benefiting from higher commodities prices, gained on ideas of better profitability. But the bankruptcy of Japanese property Urban, the biggest by a listed company in six years, fanned fears of further collapses in the world's No. 2 economy.

In Beijing, Olympic sponsors have asked organizers why only small numbers of the hundreds of thousands of spectators are finding their way to their pavilions in the Olympic Green area. Games organizers said they had an estimated 250,000 people in all venues, but sponsors complain that too few fans are passing through the areas where they have set up shop.

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News & Politics

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