TOKYO / NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose on Wednesday, following the small gains of Wall Street, as a vaccine was expected to win the final battle against the hope of a coronavirus recovery, while tight supply expectations push oil prices high year on year. .
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.45%. Chinese shares rose 0.34% while South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.04%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.49%, but Australia’s S&P / ASX 200 reversed the regional trend and fell 0.12%.
U.S. stock futures rose 0.15%.
Finances expanded their collection in Asian trade, which pulled 10-year benchmark yields further away from the highest in nearly a year and caused the flat yield curve slightly.
Investors pledged that the incoming Biden administration would ramp up U.S. circulation of coronavirus vaccines, which would allow large segments of the U.S. economy to reopen, said Peter Essele, head of package regulation at the Commonwealth Finance Network in Boston.
“The level of pent-up demand is growing steadily and over the next year is likely to be one of the strongest growth in 20 years and markets are pushing that in,” said Essele.
“Right now, it’s a race between the issues and the vaccine and the vaccine will win out eventually and the loop will grow out.”
On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated virtually unchanged for the session, near highs. The Dow rose 0.19%, the S&P 500 gained 0.04% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.28%.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 0.81% to $ 53.64 a barrel, reaching its highest level since February after a larger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude investments. Brent crude rose 0.87% to $ 57.07. [API/S]
Oil prices were also backed after Saudi Arabia said it plans to cut production by an additional 1 million barrels per day in February and March.
Some investors were keeping an eye on developments in Washington after at least three Republicans said they would join the Democrats in a vote expected Wednesday to impress President Donald Trump over attack on US Capitol.
With seven days left in his term in office, Trump is implored over allegations that he sparked a revolution in a speech to fans last week before hundreds of them stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead. Trump says his speech was appropriate.
An impeachment lawsuit could go ahead even after Trump leaves office on Jan. 20, but analysts say they don’t expect any further political unrest in Washington to affect markets.
“Markets from the election have been very strong because a feature of uncertainty has been removed,” Essele said.
U.S. government’s 10-year benchmark debt yield fell to 1.1120% Wednesday in Asia, down from a nearly year high of 1.1870% reached in the previous session after a massive auction of 10-year pounds new.
The yield curve, which had reached its steepest level since May 2017 in anticipation of a major fiscal stimulus under a new Democratic administration, fell slightly to 96.6 basis points.
The dollar lost interest Wednesday as a result of a return in U.S. output recovering from the recent reversal.
Against the yen, the greenback fell 0.18% to 103.58. The dollar was also falling to $ 1.3679 against the British pound.
Safe-haven spot gold added 0.28% to $ 1,860.51 an ounce.
Reporting with Stanley White in Tokyo and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Edited by Sam Holmes and Ana Nicolaci da Costa