Industry
Asian shares rose on Friday, pushing Wall Street’s slow decline as expected by a major U.S. stimulus under President Joe Biden raising sentiment as oil prices soared on advanced Chinese trade figures.
PHOTO FILE: A cyclist rides past a screen showing the average Nikkei shares and out-of-stock stock indices, amid the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), in Tokyo, Japan Dec. 30, 2020. REUTERS / Issei Kato
NEW YORK: Asian shares rose on Friday, erasing Wall Street’s late decline as expected by major U.S. stimulus under President Joe Biden raising sentiment as oil prices soared on trade figures Advanced Chinese.
President-elect Biden will unveil a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package proposal designed to kick-start the economy and accelerate the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Thursday.
While U.S. stocks spent most of the trading session in a positive range, aided by the stimulus hopes, some concerns about the detail of the package caused a slight decline to the end of Wall Street trading.
“The concern is what it’s going to mean from a tax point,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
“It’s easy to spend money but the question is how do you pay for it? Markets often evade politics but often do not evade taxes.”
In Asia, investors maintained a more optimistic rate with Australia’s S&P / ASX 200 up 0.2per per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.3perper and South Korea’s KOSPI up 0.2per per cent.
Investors had also kept an eye on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who struck a dovish tone in comments at a keynote conference with Princeton University.
Powell said the U.S. central bank is not raising interest rates anytime soon and rejected suggestions that the Fed could start reducing bond purchases soon.
“The Fed wants to talk about rates and it would be interesting if it goes in to buy long-term securities and if the bond market breaks because of that,” Ghriskey said.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.22per percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.38per percent, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.12per percent.
On Friday, a season of earnings begins at full capacity with results from JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. Investors are looking to see if banks start removing credit stocks, resuming purchases, and provide guidance that shows the economy is getting better, Thomas Hayes said, chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.
“The markets want to see if they show confidence. If the direction is strong, it shows that we can sustain this trend,” Hayes said.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Thursday, boosted by a weak dollar and bullish signals from Chinese import data despite renewed concerns about global oil demand due to coronavirus outbreaks in Europe and new lockouts in China.
Brent crude oil times rose 36 cents, or 0.6per percent, to settle at US $ 56.42 a barrel. U.S. crude finished 66 cents, or 1.3per percent, higher at US $ 53.57.
Treasury yields were rising in anticipation of the new stimulus package. Benchmark’s 10-year financial notes last fell 12/32 in price to yield 1.1292per cents, from 1.088per cents late Wednesday.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Sam Holmes)