An incredible day on Wall Street, which saw major indexes finishing at least 5% higher, spurred early gains in Asia on Thursday as some traders returned from a Christmas break.
Stock markets also got a boost from crude oil futures, which surged 8% Wednesday, coming off 17-month lows as a Russian official predicted oil prices would stabilize in 2019.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index
NIK, +4.32%
rebounded 3.7%. It had tumbled more than 5% on Tuesday before recovering slightly a day later. The energy sector was among the day’s biggest winners, as Inpex
1605, +4.19%
, JXTG
5020, +7.55%
, Fuji Oil
5017, +8.49%
and Japan Petroleum Exploration
1662, +4.74%
rallied. Nintendo
7974, +4.96%
, Sony
6758, +5.72%
and Fast Retailing
9983, +1.99%
also posted solid gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
HSI, +0.62%
, which reopened after the Christmas holiday, rose 0.6%. Energy companies were again among the leaders, with CNOOC
0883, +3.25%
, China Petroleum & Chemical
0386, +2.84%
and PetroChina
0857, +2.47%
rising about 2% or more. Tech stocks gained as well, with Sunny Optical
2382, +4.39%
and AAC
2018, +1.11%
up more than 1% each.
On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite index
SHCOMP, +0.56%
was up 0.5%, while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite
399106, +0.54%
rose 0.4% as government data showed industrial profits fell in November for the first time in almost three years.
South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.22%
added 0.2% as Samsung
005930, +0.26%
and SK Hynix
000660, +2.83%
gained. Australia’s S&P-ASX 200
XJO, +1.64%
rallied 1.5%, with energy companies such as Woodside Petroleum
WPL, +4.09%
, Santos
STO, +2.48%
and Beach Energy
BPT, +1.90%
advancing. Benchmark indexes in Taiwan
Y9999, +1.99%
and Singapore
STI, +1.95%
rose around 2%.
On Wednesday, U.S. markets snapped a four-day losing streak and clocked their best day in more than 10 years. Investors were reassured by an official signal that President Donald Trump, who has heavily criticized the Fed on Twitter, will not try to oust Chairman Jerome Powell. The broad S&P 500 index
SPX, +4.96%
soared 5% to 2,467.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, +4.98%
added over 1,000 points — its biggest point gain in a day — or 5% to 22,878.45. The Nasdaq composite
COMP, +5.84%
picked up 5.8% to 6,554.36.
“Wall Street’s strong rebound on Wednesday inspires gains across to Asia even as the market ponders about the sustainability of this change with the light volume that accompanied,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a market commentary.
According to Bloomberg News, the U.S. will send government delegation to hold trade talks with Chinese officials in Beijing in the week starting Jan. 7. It cited two people familiar with the matter. This follows a meeting between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Argentina earlier this month. The two leaders agreed to hold off on additional tariffs for 90 days, to work on disagreements on trade and technology policies.
Benchmark U.S. crude
CLG9, -0.26%
dropped 12 cents to $46.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract posted its biggest one-day gain in more than two years to settle at $46.22 a barrel in New York. Brent crude
LCOG9, -0.17%
, used to price international oils, shed 13 cents to $54.34 a barrel.
The rally was “a clear signal that the oil market tumult was rooted in the equity market volatility where investor sentiment has been weighted down by the unfortunate events in Washington, higher U.S. Interest rates, China economic slowdown and the omnipresent U.S.-China trade dispute,” wrote Stephen Innes, head of Asia Pacific trading at Oanda, in a research note.
The dollar
USDJPY, -0.32%
eased to 111.04 yen from 111.37 yen late Wednesday.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch’s free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.
Source : MTV
