Asian stocks rise with Wall Street gains

Bloomberg – Asian stocks rose on Friday, as did US stocks, while dollar and Treasury yields held steady at the previous session’s lows.

Benchmarks rose in Australia and Japan and stock futures rose in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Contracts for the tech-heavy S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were mostly flat after both indexes rose 1.7% and 2.5% on Thursday, All mark their best day of the month.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose slightly after Thursday’s decline. The dollar stopped falling in the previous session and traded flat, highlighting the markets’ caution.

US jobless claims data fell in line with expectations, calming investors who feared the data could reveal a tougher-than-expected job market, thus pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates further.

The rally in equities provided a positive side in a rough year for equities and fixed income. Global stocks lost a fifth of their value in 2022, the biggest annual decline since 2008, with technology stocks bearing the brunt. The global bond index fell 16% on the back of rising inflation and interest rates.

“Actually, I’m not very afraid of technology,” Silvia Jablonski, CEO and CIO of Defiance ETFs, said on Bloomberg TV. “I think a lot of these stocks are going to go up by the end of the year and investors are very scared of them right now. They’re going to miss an opportunity to bounce back in the coming months, let’s say 6-9 months.”

Confidence in the risks was also boosted after Italy said it had found no worrying new mutations of the Covid-19 virus. Its latest arrivals from China. Concerns about the risks of spreading Covid sparked a sell-off on Wednesday, after Italian health authorities found that nearly half of the passengers on two flights to Milan had tested positive for the virus. The United States and Italy on Wednesday joined a growing number of countries requiring Covid tests for travelers from China.

More market comments

Tom Esay, former Merrill Lynch trader and founder of The Sevens Report newsletter:

Markets enter 2023 at important transition points. One way is paved with persistent inflation, resilient earnings, weak growth, a balanced labor market, and rising stock and bond prices. The other way is paved with flat inflation, slowing growth, a tight labor market, and falling stock and bond prices.” Data from the beginning of the year will provide important clues about which path the markets will take.”

Chris Gaffney, Head of Global Markets at TIAA Bank:

“Going into the new year, I think investors will focus on the same thing that we’ve focused on this year which is where central banks are going to take interest rates and if the inflation numbers are going to help them force us to continue to be very aggressive with rate hikes or if we see The expected cooling, and therefore, we will see the markets rebound as the Fed adopts a less aggressive stance.” Another focus of the new year is China and China with reopening.”

Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda Europe Ltd:

Investors are entering 2023 with a cautious mindset, ready for more price increases and anticipating recessions around the world. Then there is China and its 180-degree turn on Covid prevention. It’s been a huge change, from fighting all the cases to living with the virus, and that creates enormous uncertainty at the start of the year.”

Elsewhere, oil rose after a three-day series of declines on fears of rising crude inventories and fears that rising Covid-19 cases in China could dampen demand in one of the world’s major oil importers.

Some of the major movements of the markets:

procedures

S&P 500 futures were down 0.1% at 9:42 a.m. Tokyo time. The S&P 500 rose 1.7%.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%. The Nasdaq 100 rose by 2.5

Hang Seng Index futures rose 1.1%.

Japan’s Topix rose 0.3%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5

Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.2%.

Currency exchange rate

The Bloomberg Spot Dollar Index hasn’t changed much

The euro remained unchanged at $1.0661.

The Japanese yen advanced 0.3% and settled at 132.65 per dollar

The yuan was trading at 6.9758 to the dollar.

Digital currencies

Bitcoin rose 0.3% to $16,639.97.

Ether rose 0.6% to settle at $1,201.69.

bonds

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed, at 3.82%.

The yield on 10-year Japanese bonds fell 2 basis points, to 0.44%.

The yield on the 10-year Australian bond was little changed, at 4.02%.

raw materials

A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $78.72.

The price of spot gold has not changed

This article was produced with the help of Bloomberg Automation.