Beijing, July 8: Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday after two Federal Reserve officials said the US economy might avoid a recession and a news report said China might boost construction spending to stimulate its struggling economy.
Tokyo’s main stock market index gave up some of its gains following the shooting of a former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, but stayed in positive territory for the day.
Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney also advanced. Oil prices declined but stayed above USD 100 per barrel.
Wall Street’s benchmark S and P 500 index rose 1.5 per cent on Thursday after a member of the Fed panel that sets interest rates, James Bullard, said a “soft landing” for the economy was the most likely scenario.
Another panel member, Christopher Waller, said “fears of a recession are overblown.”
“Investor recession fears ebbed,” said Robert Carnell and Iris Pang of ING in a report.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was up 0.6 per cent at 26,654.15 at midday after a gunman shot Abe during a campaign event in the western Japanese city of Nara. The index was up 1.4 per cent before the attack.
Abe, who oversaw an economic stimulus effort dubbed Abenomics, stepped down as prime minister in 2020.
The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 3,370.28 after Bloomberg News reported China might add 1.5 trillion yuan (USD 220 billion) to spending on public works construction this year to stimulate economic growth. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.2 per cent to 21,694.17.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.9 per cent to 2,346.14 and Sydney’s S and P-ASX 200 was 0.6 per cent higher at 6,689.30.
India’s Sensex opened up 0.5 per cent at 54,462.63. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets advanced.
On Wall Street, the S and P 500 rose to 3,902.62 for its fourth daily increase. Roughly three-fourths of the stocks in the index gained.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1 per cent to 31,384 and the Nasdaq composite advanced 2.3 per cent to 11,621.35.
Investors are uneasy that aggressive US and European interest rate hikes to cool inflation that is running at a four-decade high might derail global economic growth.
Bullard, who is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said “it would make a lot of sense” to raise the US central bank’s key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, or triple the usual margin, at its meeting this month.
That would repeat the dramatic mid-June rate hike, the Fed’s biggest in 28 years.
Waller, speaking at a separate event, said he also supported a 0.75-percentage-point hike. He said the Fed might risk “causing some economic damage”, but with a strong labor market, that shouldn’t be too big.
The US government is due to report June employment data.
On Thursday, official data showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits topped the 230,000 mark for the fifth consecutive week. It was the highest level in almost six months.
Bloomberg News reported China’s Ministry of Finance was considering a plan to allow local governments to raise money from bond sales to spend on building roads and other public works.
It wasn’t clear whether that represented additional spending or was future bond sales brought forward to help shore up economic growth some forecasters say fell close to zero in the quarter ending in June after anti-virus controls shut down Shanghai and other industrial centres.
Markets also have been on edge about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent oil and other commodity prices soaring.
European markets gained on Thursday after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation following a series of departures from his Cabinet by members of his Conservative Party.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 29 cents to USD 103.02 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract jumped USD 4.20 to USD 102.73 on Thursday. Brent crude, the price basis for international trading, gained 78 cents to USD 105.43 per barrel in London. It advanced USD 3.96 the previous session to USD 104.65.
The dollar declined to 135.55 yen from Thursday’s 136.11 yen. The euro edged down to USD 1.0150 from USD 1.0156. (AP)
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