HONG KONG, May 5 — Asian stocks rose today, 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 up 1.31 per cent and EuroSTOXX 50 futures 1.5 per cent higher, after sharp falls yesterday. US stock futures rose 0.75 per cent.

Amid light trading volumes, with China, Japan and South Korea closed for public holidays, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.84 per cent.

The gains were led by Australia's ASX 200, which rose 1.42 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.84 per cent.

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 per cent and that means this won't be too convincing for traders,” he said.

The Asian rally followed late US gains with the S&P 500 ending up 0.42 per cent, driven by technology names such as Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.

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 rose 4 per cent to US$28.30 (RM121.55) a barrel, up for a sixth straight day, and US crude rose 6.03 per cent to US$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 yesterday.

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 US 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 US dollar index dropped 0.1 per cent, as commodity currencies inched up, and spot gold lost 0.08 per cent to US$1,700 an ounce. — Reuters