Afp Business Asia

Europe’s main stock markets climbed Tuesday following a largely tepid performance by Asia’s top indices as a record-long US government shutdown took a step nearer to ending.London’s top-tier FTSE 100 index led the way, reaching a fresh record high as a weakening pound boosted multi-nationals earning in dollars.An Asian rally that began Monday on shutdown hopes ran out of steam while US equity futures showed a similar picture ahead of Wall Street reopening.  “Following on from yesterday’s US shutdown-fuelled optimism the gains seen in Europe… look to be a separate phenomenon given the weakness seen in US futures thus far,” noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.Paris won solid gains during a public holiday in France, which tends to exaggerate share price movements owing to lowing trading volumes.Equities generally started the week on the front foot after US lawmakers reached a deal to reopen the government after more than 40 days, adding to a revival of demand for tech giants despite growing fears of an AI-fuelled bubble.US senators passed the compromise budget measure on Monday after a group of Democrats broke with their party to side with Republicans on a bill to fund departments through January.It is hoped the bill will then pass the Republican-held House of Representatives and head to US President Donald Trump’s desk, with some suggesting the government could reopen Friday.Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “we’ll be opening up our country very quickly”, adding that “the deal is very good”.Investors had grown increasingly concerned about the impact of severe disruptions of food benefits to low-income households, and of air travel heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.The shutdown has also meant key official data on a range of things, including inflation and jobs, has not been released, leaving traders to focus on private reports for an idea about the economy.The lack of crucial data has meant the Federal Reserve has been unable to gauge properly whether or not to cut interest rates at its next meeting in December, keeping investors guessing.Analysts increasingly expect the Bank of England to cut its main interest rate next month after official data Tuesday showed a bigger-than-expected rise to UK unemployment ahead of the Labour government’s annual budget later this month.The increase to five percent in the third quarter weighed on the pound.- Key figures at 1145 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.9 percent at 9,876.61 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 8,105.80Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 23,981.52Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 50,842.93 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,696.41 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 4,002.76 (close)New York – Dow:  UP 0.8 percent at 47,368.63 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1573 from $1.1563 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3144 from $1.3182Dollar/yen: UP at 154.23 yen from 154.03 yenEuro/pound: UP at 88.03 pence from 88.00 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $64.50 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $60.52 per barrel

Chinese shoppers worried about the economy and overwhelmed by near-constant retail promotions are growing weary of the annual “Singles Day” sales bonanza, a discouraging sign as the government tries to boost consumption.”Singles Day” — named for its 11/11 date and first launched by tech giant Alibaba in 2009 — has ballooned into a month-long promotional period for e-commerce platforms.The shopping spree was once an annual opportunity for Alibaba and major rival JD.com to announce new purchase records, but they have withheld detailed sales totals in recent years.”The discounts aren’t as attractive now,” said 29-year-old Shanghai resident Zhang Jing, who told AFP she bought “nothing” during this year’s sales.Zhang said she was discouraged by online platforms’ increasingly complex promotions, which often require shoppers to claim multiple coupons or combine purchases in a specific order before they can enjoy a discount.”I’ve never participated in these complicated rules, not once,” she said.Shi Xuebin, the 42-year-old owner of a clothing boutique, said she bought a new iPhone 17, but only because “I wanted to buy a new phone in the first place”.She told AFP she had bought far fewer Singles Day products compared to last year and that she had noticed a belt-tightening trend among Chinese consumers.- ‘Downgrading consumption’ -“I feel the general economy hasn’t been great this year and people are avoiding buying things that aren’t absolutely necessary,” Shi said.”Before, if you liked something, you’d buy it without much thought… but now, there’s a real sense of downgrading consumption.”China’s leaders have fought to overcome sluggish domestic spending, a protracted crisis in the property sector and a trade war with the United States.The Communist Party’s top brass vowed to “vigorously boost consumption” after a key planning meeting in Beijing last month.Consumer prices have been stagnant or in decline in recent months, although they rose in October after a weeklong national holiday boosted demand for travel and food.Zhu, a 30-year-old Shanghai resident who declined to give his full name, said his mother had taken advantage of November sales to stock up on household products such as laundry detergent and toilet paper. However, outside daily necessities, Zhu said he mostly shopped second-hand instead of buying new versions of the tools and books he needed for his calligraphy hobby.”We’re pretty practical — if I need something I will buy it but if I don’t need it, I just won’t get it no matter how cheap it is,” he told AFP.

Asian markets struggled to maintain early momentum Tuesday as a rally fuelled by hopes for an end to the US government shutdown ran out of gas.Equities started the week on the front foot after US lawmakers reached a deal to reopen the government after more than 40 days, adding to a revival of demand for tech giants despite growing fears of an AI-fuelled bubble.Senators on Capitol Hill passed the compromise budget measure on Monday after a group of Democrats broke with their party to side with Republicans on a bill to fund departments through January.It is hoped the bill will then pass the Republican-held House of Representatives and head to Donald Trump’s desk, with some suggesting the government could reopen Friday.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.And the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that “we’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” adding that “the deal is very good.”Investors had grown increasingly concerned about the impact of severe disruptions of food benefits to low-income households, and of air travel heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.It has also meant key official data on a range of things, including inflation and jobs, has not been released, leaving traders to focus on private reports for an idea about the economy.The lack of crucial data has also meant the Federal Reserve has been unable to gauge properly whether or not to cut interest rates at its next meeting in December, keeping investors guessing.Asian markets started Tuesday by extending Monday’s gains as well as a rally on Wall Street, but struggled to maintain momentum going into the afternoon.Tokyo, Sydney, Shanghai, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok and Wellington all fell, while Seoul gave up its initial strong gains to sit slightly higher, along with Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore.London jumped even as data showed UK unemployment rose more than expected in the third quarter to hit its highest level since the pandemic. The reading comes ahead of the Labour government’s annual budget due November 26.The pound weakened against the dollar and euro after the news.Paris and Frankfurt also opened higher.Sentiment was also weighed by a report in the Wall Street Journal saying China planned to exclude firms linked to the US military from gaining access to rare earths.The report comes after Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had agreed a deal to secure supplies of the minerals critical for the defence, automotive and consumer electronics sectors.Beijing’s tightening control over their export this year has snarled supply chains and halted production globally while sweeping measures introduced last month saw the US leader threaten blanket 100 percent tariffs.”The US had handed off a bright baton: government shutdown resolved, liquidity set to re-enter the bloodstream, and equities roaring on cue. Yet Asia hesitated,” wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.”It was a reminder that in this cycle, optimism doesn’t always travel well across time zones.”Michael Brown at Pepperstone said reopening the US government would allow markets “to re-focus on what remains a solid bull case of the underlying economy remaining robust, earnings growth proving resilient, the monetary backdrop continuing to loosen and a calmer tone being taken on trade”.But, he warned, “the assumptions underpinning that bull case will now come under the microscope.”In corporate news, Japanese titan Sony soared 5.5 percent after it hiked its full-year profit forecasts thanks to the latest “Demon Slayer” anime blockbuster.It also cited higher expected sales of its PlayStation games console and a smaller-than-expected impact from US tariffs as reasons for the improved outlook.- Key figures at 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 50,842.93 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,696.41 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 4,002.76 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 9,865.19Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1553 from $1.1563 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3127 from $1.3182Dollar/yen: UP at 154.18 yen from 154.03 yenEuro/pound: UP at 88.08 pence from 88.00 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $59.70 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.6 percent at $63.66 per barrelNew York – Dow:  UP 0.8 percent at 47,368.63 (close)

Japan’s SoftBank Group reported Tuesday that net profit more than doubled in the second quarter thanks to a boom in AI-related share prices that has fuelled fears of a market bubble.The tech investment giant — a major backer of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — logged a net profit of 2.5 trillion yen ($16.2 billion) in July-September, up from 1.2 trillion yen in the same period last year.SoftBank also announced it sold $5.8 billion worth of shares in US chip giant Nvidia last month, after the quarter had ended.The group’s earnings often swing dramatically because it invests heavily in tech start-ups and semiconductor firms, whose stocks are volatile.In recent months optimism over the promise of AI technology has sparked a rush of multi-billion-dollar deals — sending tech shares soaring worldwide.Wall Street’s tech-rich Nasdaq index has surged 25 percent since May.But that has fed concerns of a market bubble that could eventually burst, like the dot-com boom that imploded at the turn of the millennium.Fears that AI stock valuations are too high sparked a market sell-off last week.Nvidia, whose chips are used to train and power generative AI systems, recently became the world’s first company valued above $5 trillion, though its market cap has since receded to around $4.8 trillion.SoftBank did not give a reason for the Nvidia stock sale in its earnings statement.But Bloomberg News said it could reflect plans by the Japanese company’s flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son to boost his own influence in the AI field.Son, 68, believes “artificial superintelligence” is on the horizon, which will herald a technological revolution with new inventions and medicine.He appeared alongside US President Donald Trump at the White House in January when SoftBank teamed up with OpenAI and cloud giant Oracle to lead the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States.By some estimates, OpenAI has signed approximately $1 trillion worth of infrastructure deals in 2025, including a $300 billion Oracle agreement.SoftBank stock has “had a strong run” itself, said a Jefferies equity research published last month.”The recent surge appears to be driven by excitement around its exposure to OpenAI,” it said.The firm has soared more than 140 percent so far in 2025.But Jefferies also listed some reasons for caution.”While OpenAI has strong consumer visibility, its share in (the) enterprise market is tiny. Its transition from non-profit to for-profit remains unresolved, and its relationship with Microsoft is still evolving,” the note said.And “the competitive landscape is intense, with Google, Anthropic, Grok, and others investing heavily”.SoftBank said last month it would buy Swiss-Swedish firm ABB Robotics for nearly $5.4 billion as part of its plans to develop so-called physical AI.

US fast-food chain Burger King will rapidly expand its China operations in coming years, its parent company said, selling its controlling stake to form a new joint venture powered by hundreds of millions of dollars in local investment.International brands have in recent years sought to pivot their strategies in the world’s number two economy, where a persistent spending slump and increasingly digitalised services shape new consumption habits.The Florida-based hamburger giant — owned by Canadian multinational Restaurant Brands International (RBI) since 2014 — entered the Chinese market in 2005.Two decades later, Burger King still trails global rivals McDonald’s and KFC in the vast consumer market.The new joint venture, Burger King China, will receive $350 million in investment from Beijing-based private equity firm CPE, according to a statement by RBI on Monday.The funds will be used to “support restaurant expansion, marketing, menu innovation, and operations”, the statement said.Under the new blueprint, Burger King China will seek to double the chain’s number of restaurants in the country “within five years” and reach more than 4,000 locations by 2035, it added.By contrast, key competitor McDonald’s had more than 6,800 stores in mainland China last year, according to data released by the company.Fried chicken chain KFC had over 12,600 stores in China as of the end of September this year, according to the website of Yum China, its local operator.Once the transaction is complete, CPE will hold around 83 percent of Burger King China, while RBI will hold the remainder, the statement said.”China remains one of the most exciting long-term opportunities for Burger King globally,” said Joshua Kobza, CEO of RBI, according to the statement.”Our recent investments and this joint venture underscore our confidence in the Chinese market,” he added.The latest shake-up follows an announcement last week by Starbucks that it will sell a controlling stake in its China retail operations.The partnership marks a strategic shift for the US coffee chain after more than 26 years in China, where it has ceded market share more recently to a new generation of local competitors.

Shares in Japanese giant Sony jumped more than five percent Tuesday after it hiked full-year profit forecasts thanks to the latest “Demon Slayer” anime blockbuster.The company also put the improved forecasts down to higher expected sales of its PlayStation games console and a smaller-than-expected impact from US tariffs.For the 2025-26 financial year, Sony sees net profit of 1.05 trillion yen ($6.8 billion), up eight percent from its last forecast, little changed from last year’s record profit.It also increased its operating profit projection by eight percent and its sales forecast by three percent.The new guidance was the second hike this year, with Sony in August having raised its net profit projection to 970 billion yen.In the first half of the current financial year, net profit rose 13.7 percent year-on-year to 570 billion yen, Sony said.”Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle: Part 1,” the first title in a new trilogy based on the popular manga series, has been a huge hit.The animated movie has become the second-highest grossing film of all time in Japan, second only to the previous “Demon Slayer” movie, a Covid pandemic hit.The dark fantasy about sword-swishing Tanjiro Kamado’s final showdown to slay demons also topped the box office when it opened on US and Canadian screens in September.Sony lowered its forecast for the impact of US tariffs to around 50 billion yen, a reduction of 20 billion yen from the previous estimate in August.Trade officials in July reached a deal that saw the United States lower tariffs on Japanese goods to 15 percent from a threatened 25 percent.Japanese auto giant Toyota last week also hiked its operating income and net profit forecasts for the current fiscal year.Sony in August bumped up the price of PlayStation 5 video game consoles by $50 in the United States citing a “challenging economic environment”.The PlayStation 5, which launched in 2020, is “in the downcycle of its lifespan”, analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence told AFP.The hotly anticipated upcoming release of the “Grand Theft Auto VI” game is also important for Sony.Its creators Rockstar Games last week again delayed the launch, this time until November 2026.”Overall this is one of the biggest concerns for PlayStation sales as GTA6 is expected to be a major driver for Sony,” said Cole.”However, the PlayStation business model is such that it is not dependent on one or two big hits,” he said.Sony Group shares were up 5.7 percent in afternoon trade.

Japanese giant Sony hiked its full-year revenue and profit forecasts Tuesday on the back of the huge global success of the latest “Demon Slayer” anime blockbuster.The company also put the increase down to higher sales of its PlayStation games console and a smaller-than-expected impact from US tariffs.For the 2025-26 fiscal year, Sony sees net profit of 1.05 trillion yen ($6.8 billion), an increase of eight percent from its previous forecast.It also increased its operating profit projection by eight percent, to 1.4 trillion yen, and its sales forecast by three percent to 12 trillion yen.”Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle: Part 1,” the first title in a new trilogy based on the popular manga series, has been a huge hit.The anime movie has become the second-highest grossing film in Japan and topped the box office when it opened on US and Canadian screens.Sony lowered its forecast for the impact of US tariffs to around 50 billion yen, a reduction of 20 billion yen from the previous estimate in August.In the first half of the current financial year, net profit rose 13.7 percent year-on-year to 570 billion yen, Sony said.

Most Asian markets rose for the second day in a row Tuesday as US lawmakers edged towards ending a record government shutdown.The prospect of an end to the Washington standoff, which moved into its 41st day Monday, came amid a revival of demand for tech giants despite growing fears of an AI-fuelled bubble.Senators on Capitol Hill passed the compromise budget measure on Monday night after a group of Democrats broke with their party to side with Republicans on a bill to fund departments through January.It is hoped the bill will then pass the Republican-held House of Representatives and head to Donald Trump’s desk, with some suggesting the government could reopen Friday.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. And the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that “we’ll be opening up our country very quickly”, adding that “the deal is very good”.Investors have welcomed the developments, having grown increasingly concerned about the impact of severe disruptions of food benefits to low-income households, and of air travel heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.It has also meant key official data on a range of things, including inflation and jobs, has not been released, leaving traders to focus on private reports for an idea about the economy.The lack of crucial data has also meant the Federal Reserve has been unable to gauge properly whether or not to cut interest rates at its next meeting in December, keeping investors guessing.”Reopening would not only boost sentiment, but also open the way for data releases, which could provide more insight into the health of the US jobs market and, more broadly, the US economy ahead of next month’s Federal Reserve interest-rate decision,” Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index wrote in a commentary.Michael Brown at Pepperstone said: “It has typically been the ‘rule of thumb’ that every week of a shutdown subtracts around 0.1 percentage point from US GDP growth in the quarter in question, with the sum total of that lost output then recouped the following month.”Arguably, the economic hit from the current shutdown, in the last week or so at least, could be somewhat larger, given factors like the mounting number of air traffic delays.”He added that a reopening would allow markets “to re-focus on what remains a solid bull case of the underlying economy remaining robust, earnings growth proving resilient, the monetary backdrop continuing to loosen and a calmer tone being taken on trade”.But, he warned, “the assumptions underpinning that bull case will now come under the microscope”Most Asian markets built on Monday’s gains, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei all up, though there were losses in Shanghai, Sydney, Manila and Wellington.The positive start to the day came after a rally on Wall Street fanned by another surge in tech giants including Amazon and Nvidia.The sector has come under pressure in recent weeks amid worries that valuations could be in for a drop from their stratospheric highs, having been stoked by hundreds of billions of dollars of AI investment this year.- Key figures at 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.4 percent at 51,131.28 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 26,680.73Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 4,008.61Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1556 from $1.1563 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3168 from $1.3182Dollar/yen: UP at 154.33 yen from 154.03 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.76 pence from 88.00 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $59.90 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $63.83 per barrelNew York – Dow:  UP 0.8 percent at 47,368.63 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 9,787.15 (close)

G7 foreign ministers gather in Canada Tuesday for meetings expected to focus on Ukraine and find consensus on a path forward to end the four-year-old conflict.Options to fund Ukraine’s war needs could feature prominently at the talks in Canada’s Niagara region on the US border.The diplomats are meeting after President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies in October, slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the conflict.Trump has also pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine.Ukraine is enduring devastating Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, but Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand stopped short of promising concrete outcomes to aid Kyiv at the Niagara talks.She told AFP a priority for the meeting was broadening discussion beyond the Group of Seven, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.”For Canada, it is important to foster a multilateral conversation, especially now, in such a volatile and complicated environment,” Anand said.Representatives from Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Mexico and South Korea will also be on hand.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to hold bilateral talks with Anand on Wednesday, the second and final day of the G7 meeting.Anand told AFP she did not expect to press the issue of Trump’s trade war, which has forced Canadian job losses and squeezed economic growth.”We will have a meeting and have many topics to discuss concerning global affairs,” Anand said.”The trade issue is being dealt with by other ministers.”Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada last month — just after an apparently cordial White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.The president has voiced fury over an ad, produced by Ontario’s provincial government, which quoted former president Ronald Reagan on the harm caused by tariffs.- Critical minerals -The G7’s top diplomats are meeting two weeks after the group’s energy secretaries agreed on further steps to counter China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains, a growing area of concern for the world’s industrialized democracies.Beijing has established commanding market control over the refining and processing of various minerals — especially the rare earth materials needed for the magnets that power sophisticated technologies.The G7 announced on an initial series of joint projects last month to ramp up refining capacity that excludes China.While the United States was not party to any of those initial deals, the Trump administration has signaled alignment with its G7 partners.A State Department official told reporters ahead of the Niagara meet that critical mineral supply chains would be “a major point of focus.””There’s a growing global consensus amongst a lot of our partners and allies that economic security is national security,” the official said.

Stock markets charged higher Monday as investors cheered prospects that the US government shutdown could be nearing an end, after lawmakers reached a deal likely to break the record 40-day impasse.The prospect of operations resuming in the world’s biggest economy helped temper lingering worries about extended tech valuations amid talk of an AI bubble.”Everyone’s now anticipating we’ll see the government reopen in the next couple of days,” said Jack Ablin from Cresset Capital. That’s “good for the consumer, good for investors, really good for anyone who travels,” Ablin said.A group of Democrats in the Senate sided with Republicans in a procedural vote on the deal Sunday evening, clearing the way for a formal debate after reaching a bipartisan agreement to fund government operations through January.A government re-opening could also provide clarity on US inflation and on the soft labor market, which will determine whether the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates again, as is widely expected next month.”If all goes well, some federal agencies could reopen as soon as Friday,” said David Morrison, senior analyst at Trade Nation. He noted that both investors and the Fed had been “flying blind since the beginning of October, with a near-complete absence of data”.”Fed Chair Jerome Powell has played down the prospect of another rate cut in December, as it is far from obvious that inflation has peaked,” Morrison added. But as the shutdown entered its 41st day on Monday, investors focused on the US government reopening. They had grown increasingly concerned about the impact of severe disruptions of food benefits to low-income households, and of air travel heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.”Shutdowns haven’t typically had a big bearing on the economy or on financial markets. But, this one…looked as though it might start to cause some trouble,” said analysts at Capital Economics.- Rebound after tech worries -Wall Street opened higher across the board following turbulent losses last week on fears that AI optimism might have pushed tech stocks such as chip heavyweight Nvidia to unsustainable highs.European indices also rose sharply, following similar gains across Asia, with investors also taking heart from a further easing of China-US tensions.Beijing on Monday said it would suspend for one year “special port fees” on US vessels, “simultaneously” with Washington’s pause on levies targeting Chinese ships.The dollar, which steadied versus the euro and the pound, rose against the yen, while oil prices gained slightly after losses last week over concerns of hefty supply amid uncertainty over global demand.”Risk is back on, and last week’s sell-off seems like a distant memory,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading platform XTB.”There are some risks ahead, but unless we see a meaningful decline in Fed rate cut expectations, or a weak earnings report from (major computer chip-maker) Nvidia next week, then stocks could be poised to rally into year end,” she said.- Key figures at 2110 GMT -New York – Nasdaq: up 2.3 percent at 23,527.17 (close)New York – S&P 500: up 1.5 percent at 6,832.43 (close)New York – Dow:  UP 0.8 percent at 47,368.63 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 9,787.15 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.3 percent at 8,055.51 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.7 percent at 23,959.99 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 50,911.76 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 26,649.06 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 4,018.60 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1563 from $1.1566 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3182 from $1.3162Dollar/yen: UP at 154.03 yen from 153.42 yenEuro/pound: UP at 88.00 pence from 87.88 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $64.06 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $60.13 per barrel