Asia-Pacific markets slip after oil prices jump again

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Thursday morning trade after oil prices jumped around 5% on Wednesday.

The Nikkei 225 declined 1.23% in early trade, shedding some of its 3% jump from Wednesday. The Topix index fell 1.02%.

South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.73%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.18% in morning trade.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.21% lower.

Investors monitored oil moves after prices rose on Wednesday.

In the morning of Asia trading hours on Thursday, international benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.2% to $121.84 per barrel, still much higher than levels below $112 seen earlier in the week.

U.S. crude futures dipped 0.08% to $114.84 per barrel.

Oil prices have been volatile for weeks since Russia's invasion of Ukraine as investors assess the war's impact on oil supply along with other concerns such as a Covid outbreak in China.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent will also be watched by investors after the firm on Wednesday posted its slowest revenue growth on record. Tencent also said it is 'exploring' a financial holding company for WeChat Pay if required by Chinese regulators.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 dropped 1.23% to 4,456.24 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 448.96 points to 34,358.50. The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.32% to 13,922.60.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.641 — still above the 98.4 level that is was below earlier this week.

The Japanese yen traded at 121.16 per dollar, weaker as compared with levels below 119.7 seen against the greenback earlier in the week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7501, having risen from below $0.74 earlier this week.