Asian markets are mostly higher | Nasdaq

(RTTNews) – Asian stock markets traded mostly higher on Wednesday, following largely positive signals from Wall Street overnight, regarding the rise in crude oil prices and allaying concerns about the impact of the variant of the Omicron coronavirus on the global economic recovery. Traders also continued to use recent weakness as an opportunity to recover stocks to somewhat reduced levels. Asian markets closed largely higher on Tuesday.

In addition, the US Federal Reserve is increasingly expected to tighten monetary policy more aggressively to bring inflation under control. Comments from Fed officials suggest that the US central bank will likely decide to double the pace of its cut to $ 30 billion per month at its December meeting.

The Australian stock market is significantly higher on Wednesday, extending the gains of the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S & P / ASX 200 just below the 7,400 level, following broadly positive signals from Wall Street overnight, so as shares of technology, energy and materials have increased. the market after the jump in iron ore and crude oil prices. The easing of concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant on the global economic recovery also boosted market sentiment.

The benchmark S & P / ASX 200 is up 76.90 points or 1.05% to 7,390.80, after hitting an earlier high of 7,399.90. The larger All Ordinaries index is up 88.70 points or 1.17% to 7,693.90. Australian stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group gains nearly 2%, Rio Tinto adds more than 2%, OZ Minerals is up more than 1%, Fortescue Metals is up nearly 3% and mineral resources are up nearly 5% %.

Oil stocks are higher. Woodside Petroleum and Santos gain more than 2%, while Oil Search and Beach Energy are up nearly 3% each. Origin Energy adds more than 1 percent.

Woodside Petroleum has said it will invest $ 5 billion in new energy products by 2030, with the goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels, including LNG, and tapping cleaner fuel sources. In the tech space, WiseTech Global is up nearly 3%, Xero is up 1.5% and Afterpay is gaining more than 3%, while Appen is losing more than 1%.

Shares of Zip jumped nearly 10% after the buyout giant announced a record monthly trading volume of A $ 906.5 million in November, up 52% ​​from a year ago.

Among the Big Four, ANZ Banking lost nearly 1%, while the National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank fell 0.4% each. Westpac is flat.

Among gold miners, Newcrest Mining increases 0.2%, Gold Road Resources gains more than 2%, Evolution Mining adds more than 1% and Northern Star Resources is up almost 1%, while Resolute Mining loses almost 1%. In the currency market, the Australian dollar is trading at $ 0.714 on Wednesday. The Japanese stock market was significantly higher on Wednesday, extending the strong gains of the previous session, with the Nikkei benchmark just below the 28,800 level, following broadly positive signals from Wall Street overnight, on the Allaying concerns about the impact of the Omicron Variant coronavirus on the global economic recovery. Meanwhile, the Japanese economy during the July-September period contracted more deeply than initially estimated in the last quarter as part of a summer spike in COVID-19 cases that triggered restrictions on COVID-19. emergency.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed the morning session at 28,774.05, up 318.45 points or 1.12%, after peaking at 28,835.01 earlier. Japanese stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday.

The market heavyweight SoftBank Group grew by 0.3% and the operator Uniqlo Fast Retailing gained more than 1%. Among car manufacturers, Honda lost 0.4% and Toyota lost more than 1%.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is gaining nearly 2%, while Advantest and Tokyo Electron add more than 2% each.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial each gain nearly 1%.

Among the main exporters, Panasonic lost more than 1%, while Sony gained more than 2% and Canon more than 1%. Mitsubishi Electric is flat

Among the other big winners, Chugai Pharmaceutical is up over 6%, Taiyo Yuden is up over 4% and Omron adds almost 4%, while Nintendo and Minebea Mitsumi are up over 3% each. Dentsu Group, Nitto Denko and Ricoh each grew by almost 3%.

Conversely, Mitsui Fudosan lost more than 3%, while Credit Saison and fell by nearly 3% each. In economic news, Japan’s gross domestic product contracted 3.6% on an annualized basis in the third quarter of 2021, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday. That missed expectations of a 3.1% drop after the 2.0% increase in the second quarter. On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, GDP fell 0.9%, also missing forecasts of a 0.8% decline after rising 0.4% in the previous three months.

The value of all bank loans in Japan rose 0.6% year on year in November, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday, reaching 577,074 trillion yen. This is down from 0.9% in October. Excluding trusts, bank lending rose 0.5% annually to 500.885 billion yen, from 0.8% the month before. Trust loans increased 1.0% year on year to 76.189 trillion yen, while loans from foreign banks fell 2.5% year-on-year to 3.042 trillion yen.

Meanwhile, Japan posted a current account surplus of 1,018.7 billion in October, the finance ministry said on Wednesday, down 39.4 percent year-on-year. That fell short of expectations of a surplus of 1,308.5 billion yen after the surplus of 1,033.7 billion yen in September. Exports grew 11.7% year on year to 7,080.0 billion yen and imports jumped 28.3% annually to 6,913.2 billion yen for a trade surplus of 166.7 billion yen. yen. The capital account showed a deficit of 5.4 billion yen, while the financial account showed a deficit of 879.6 billion yen.

In the currency market, the US dollar is trading in the mid-range of 113 yen on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand is up 1.3%, while China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia each gain between 0.2% and 0.9%. Singapore and Malaysia are down 0.2% each.

On Wall Street, stocks showed another significant bullish move in Tuesday’s session after the rally that started the week. The main averages all rose sharply, with the highly technical Nasdaq recording a particularly strong gain.

The Nasdaq climbed 461.76 points or 3% to 15,686.92, continuing to rally after ending last Friday’s trading at its lowest closing level in more than a month. The Dow Jones also jumped 492.40 points or 1.4% to 35,719.43, while the S&P 500 jumped 95.08 points or 2.1% to 4,686.75.

Major European markets also posted strong bullish moves that day. While the UK FTSE 100 index jumped 1.5%, the German DAX index and the French CAC 40 index climbed 2.8% and 2.9%, respectively.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Tuesday, taking the most active futures contracts to their highest level in two weeks amid growing optimism about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for January jumped $ 2.56 or 3.7% to $ 72.05 a barrel.

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