Shares meander, oil jumps on Venezuela blockade

By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Global share markets drifted on Wednesday after a mixed U.S. jobs reading failed to move the needle on the ‍rate outlook there, leaving investors awaiting fresh ⁠cues for their ​next moves.

Oil prices climbed after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered "a total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, raising fresh geopolitical tensions at a time of concerns over demand.

U.S. crude futures advanced 1.6% to $56.16 per barrel, while Brent crude futures rose 1.54% to $59.84 a barrel, cutting into steep losses from Tuesday. Oil prices slid as the prospect of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal appeared to strengthen, raising expectations sanctions could be eased.

In the broader market, stocks were mixed as investors mostly looked past Tuesday's long-awaited U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

While jobs growth rebounded more than expected in November following ‌its biggest drop in nearly five years in October, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the highest in more than four years. But analysts said there was a lot of noise in the data, which was impacted by the government's record 43-day shutdown.

"Associated data collection issues will leave many sceptical about reading too deeply into these latest jobs figures," said Nick Rees, head of macro research at Monex Europe.

"Nevertheless, we still think the overall takeaway remains a sense that the U.S. labour market is softening at a faster rate than policymakers had anticipated, even ‍if there is room to question just how worrying this weakness really is."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ‌outside Japan gained 0.35%, while Japan's ‍Nikkei ‌rose 0.28%.

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures eased slightly, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures were down 0.05%. FTSE futures rose 0.1%.

Fed funds futures suggest markets are still pricing in roughly two U.S. rate cuts next year, with the ​latest labour market reading doing little ‍to shift expectations.

The next key data point for ⁠investors will be Thursday's release of ⁠the U.S. November inflation report.

"For now, our base case remains two 25-bps rate cuts in the first half of next year at the March and June FOMC meetings, with the risks skewed toward more rather than fewer ‍cuts in 2026," economists at Wells Fargo said in a note.

In China, shares of AI chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits surged 700% in their Shanghai debut, as investors sought to benefit from a government push to reduce reliance on AI chips from U.S. majors.

The CSI300 blue-chip index gained 1.6%, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.6%.

CENTRAL BANK DECISIONS ON TAP

Outside of the United States, investors are awaiting policy decisions from the Bank of England (BoE), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) this week.

The BoE is expected to cut rates, while investors are wagering the ECB will stand pat and the BOJ will increase rates.

That kept currency moves largely subdued, though the dollar made slight gains with the euro down 0.16% at $1.1727 and sterling off 0.3% ‌at $1.3383, ahead of British inflation data due later in the day.

"Expectations are for the same stagflationary combination that is making monetary policy unusually difficult, namely a ⁠labour market that continues to shed jobs and stubbornly high inflation significantly above the central bank's target," said Enrique Diaz-Alvarez, chief economist at Ebury.

The yen fell 0.25% to 155.10 per dollar, weighed down by fiscal worries in Japan.

Total spending in Japan's draft budget for fiscal 2026 will likely exceed 120 trillion yen ($773.74 billion) to hit a new record which would top the ⁠115 trillion-yen annual budget for the current fiscal year, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Japanese government bonds also came under selling pressure, with the 10-year yield hitting an 18-year high of 1.98% on Wednesday. Bond yields move inversely to prices. [JP/]

Elsewhere, silver jumped past the $65-per-ounce mark for the first time, while spot gold rose 0.7% to $4,334.32 an ounce. [GOL/]

($1 = 155.0900 yen)

(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Sam Holmes and Neil Fullick)