(Adds European futures, analyst comment)
* Asian stocks track late U.S. rally
* European futures up
* Oil maintains momentum
* Mainland China, Japan markets closed for holidays
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Alun John and David Henry
HONG KONG/NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on
Tuesday, tracking a late Wall Street rally as governments eased
coronavirus lockdowns while oil extended gains on expectations
fuel demand would begin to pick up.
European stocks were set to follow suit, with FTSE futures
FFIc1 up 1.31% and EuroSTOXX 50 futures STXEc1 1.5% higher,
after sharp falls on Monday. U.S. stock futures ESc1 rose
0.75%.
Amid light trading volumes, with China, Japan and South
Korea closed for public holidays, MSCI's broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.84%.
The gains were led by Australia's ASX 200 .AXJO , which
rose 1.42%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI climbed 0.84%.
Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC markets,
cautioned against reading too much into the day's moves in Asia,
with few meaningful leads for investors.
"While the rises are good to see, much of the region is
still on holiday, and (Australian) volumes are down 10% and that
means this won't be too convincing for traders," he said.
The Asian rally followed late U.S. gains with the S&P 500
.SPX ending up 0.42%, driven by technology names such as
Microsoft MSFT.O , Apple AAPL.O and Amazon AMZN.O .
The upturn followed more optimistic statements from the
governors of California and New York for reopening businesses.
Several other countries including Spain, Italy, Nigeria, India,
and Malaysia also tentatively eased lockdowns. Brent crude LCOc1 rose 4% to $28.30 a barrel, up for a
sixth straight day, and U.S. crude CLc1 rose 6.03% to $21.60 a
barrel, as countries began loosening coronavirus restrictions
and crude supply cuts took effect. Analysts at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the
structure of the oil price rises, with bigger gains in
nearer-dated contracts, suggested expectations of more
production cuts and a restoration of fuel demand later this
year.
They added, though, that this meant prices are highly
unlikely to recover the big falls since the start of the year.
The optimism about an economic recovery from the coronavirus
outbreak outweighed, at least briefly, the latest war of words
between China and the United States, which had dragged down
Asian and European shares on Monday.
An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising
wave of worldwide hostility in the wake of the outbreak that
could tip relations with the United States into confrontation,
people familiar with the paper told Reuters. "Tension between China and the U.S. is going to be one of
those themes that comes and goes over the next few months in the
lead-up to the presidential election," said Jim McCafferty,
joint-head of APAC equity research at Nomura.
The dollar index =USD dropped 0.1%, as commodity
currencies inched up, and spot gold XAU= lost 0.08% to $1,700
an ounce.
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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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