© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The screen displays the average Nikkei stock and stock indexes outside a Tokyo brokerage.
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By Andrew Galbraith and Jessica DiNapoli
SHANGHAI / NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian stocks hit new records on Thursday, following U.S. markets as investors waited for further economic stimulus from newly sworn US President Joe Biden to make up for the damage done. by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans in the US Congress have indicated that they are willing to work with the new president on their government’s top priority, a $ 1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan, but some are opposed to the plan’s price. Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, but will still need Republican support to approve the program.
But after record closings on Wall Street overnight, Asian markets reflected relief from an orderly transition in power and strong expectations that the US stimulus will provide continued support for global assets.
Kay Van-Petersen, global macro strategist at Saxo Capital Markets, said that the Senate’s democratic control “increases not only the likelihood of further fiscal stimulus, but the magnitude”.
“This means that this market must be much, much, much higher as a whole and we will get there. We are entering this regime of inflation of the asset class even more accelerated,” he said.
MSCI’s broadest Asia-Pacific stock index outside Japan hit record highs and rose 0.85%, with markets in the region posting gains.
Chinese blue-chips increased 1.2%, Australian stocks rose 0.69% and Hong Kong shares surpassed the 30,000 level, up 0.31%.
rose 0.72%, less than 1% of the three-decade highs reached last week.
The increases in Asia followed new records on Wall Street overnight. The rose 0.83%, gained 1.39% and added 1.97%. On Thursday, the e-mini futures for the S&P 500 reached new records and were up 0.26%.
“The market is still optimistic about the stricter regulatory / fiscal risks, given the narrow Senate majority, while still waiting for further fiscal stimulus,” said Tapas Strickland, economist at the National Australia Bank (OTC :), in a note.
The technology’s shares stood out after Netflix Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 said it would no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies, causing its shares to rise by nearly 17%.
Along with Netflix, the rest of the FAANG group, scheduled to report the results in the coming weeks, jumped. Google’s parent alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc increased 5.36%.
With the rise in stock indicators, US stimulus hopes weighed on the dollar, pushing the 0.1% drop to 90.319.
The dollar was stable against the yen at 103.52 and the euro gained 0.2% on the day to $ 1.2124.
The US benchmark yielded 1.0836%, slightly below the US close of 1.09% on Wednesday.
In commodity markets, oil prices fell due to an unexpected rise in stocks. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.56% to $ 53.01 a barrel. fell 0.4% to $ 55.85 a barrel.
remained stable at $ 1,871 per ounce. [GOL/]
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