Asian shares resume their gains
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Singapore/Boston — Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday on relief that another round of Sino-US sparring appears not to have spilt over into trade, while hopes for US stimulus lent support to oil and commodity currencies.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 1%. Japan’s Nikkei returned from a holiday with a 1.7% gain led by health-care and industrial stocks and the Hang Seng bounced 2.2%.
The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars each lifted about 0.3%, though they sit comfortably below recent milestone peaks as some trepidation muted their rise.
Investors are awaiting a meeting between US and Chinese trade officials on Saturday to review the first six months of the phase one trade deal. With China lagging far behind on energy and farm goods purchases from the US, it could test markets’ assumption that the trade relationship is insulated from crumbling diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Yet there was palpable relief on Tuesday that China’s sanctions on 11 US citizens — a response to US sanctions on Chinese individuals over Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong — seemed to shut off the latest round of tit-for-tat moves.
“It has left the White House untouched,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics at Mizuho Bank in Singapore. “That gives some relief that China is still giving some priority to the (trade deal) dialogue,” he said. “It’s just the sense that you’re not rocking the boat to the point of capsizing, that is the low bar today.”
Safe havens were under gentle pressure across the board. Gold slipped about 0.6% to $2,015 an ounce and the US bond market extended a recent sell-off, with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries at a two-week high of 0.5870%.
Overnight Wall Street found some support after Trump signed executive orders to partly restore unemployment benefits after talks between the White House and top Democrats about fresh stimulus broke down last week.
The Dow rose 1% and the S&P 500 inched ahead, while the Nasdaq sold off a little as investors trimmed some tech holdings in favour of value stocks.
The S&P 500 now sits less than 1% below a record high hit in February, while in Asia the MSCI ex-Japan index is within 2% of a January peak.
The moves have pushed valuations in Asia to precipitous highs, about 20% above post financial crisis averages. But Nomura’s Jim McCafferty in ...
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 1%. Japan’s Nikkei returned from a holiday with a 1.7% gain led by health-care and industrial stocks and the Hang Seng bounced 2.2%.
The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars each lifted about 0.3%, though they sit comfortably below recent milestone peaks as some trepidation muted their rise.
Investors are awaiting a meeting between US and Chinese trade officials on Saturday to review the first six months of the phase one trade deal. With China lagging far behind on energy and farm goods purchases from the US, it could test markets’ assumption that the trade relationship is insulated from crumbling diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Yet there was palpable relief on Tuesday that China’s sanctions on 11 US citizens — a response to US sanctions on Chinese individuals over Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong — seemed to shut off the latest round of tit-for-tat moves.
“It has left the White House untouched,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics at Mizuho Bank in Singapore. “That gives some relief that China is still giving some priority to the (trade deal) dialogue,” he said. “It’s just the sense that you’re not rocking the boat to the point of capsizing, that is the low bar today.”
Safe havens were under gentle pressure across the board. Gold slipped about 0.6% to $2,015 an ounce and the US bond market extended a recent sell-off, with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries at a two-week high of 0.5870%.
Overnight Wall Street found some support after Trump signed executive orders to partly restore unemployment benefits after talks between the White House and top Democrats about fresh stimulus broke down last week.
The Dow rose 1% and the S&P 500 inched ahead, while the Nasdaq sold off a little as investors trimmed some tech holdings in favour of value stocks.
The S&P 500 now sits less than 1% below a record high hit in February, while in Asia the MSCI ex-Japan index is within 2% of a January peak.
The moves have pushed valuations in Asia to precipitous highs, about 20% above post financial crisis averages. But Nomura’s Jim McCafferty in ...
