'Calm before storm' as Asian stocks drift higher

October 16, 2018: Asian shares drifted marginally higher on Tuesday following another volatile session on Wall Street but a perfect storm of risks hovering over the global economy curbed investors' enthusiasm.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng market led the gains, rising by half a percentage point, while equities in Japan scraped into positive territory after suffering stiff losses the previous day.

Chinese stocks opened essentially flat while markets in Australia and South Korea were fractionally in the green.

Global markets have been rocked in recent days as traders fret about spiking oil prices, rising US long-term interest rates and an attack by US President Donald Trump on his own central bank and its policies.

After a see-saw session on Wall Street, the Dow Jones closed down 0.4 percent and the broader S&P 500 was down just more -- at 0.6 percent.

Investors have now entered a "stalemate period to rethink the plethora of looming market uncertainties, ambiguities and flat out worries," said Stephen Innes from OANDA trading.

"But this relative calm belies the building storm clouds on the horizon."

Gains in Tokyo were sparked by a "technical rebound... after a sharp fall yesterday," said analysts at Okasan Online Securities.

(APP)