Stocks Gain in Asia, Dollar Snaps Eight-Day Rally: Markets Wrap - Yahoo Canada Finance

(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks and U.S. futures gained and the dollar halted an eight-day rally as investors took stock of an unprecedented rush of global stimulus measures.

European futures also climbed amid tentative signs of returning appetite for riskier assets. Gains in South Korea’s equity market topped 7% and shares in Hong Kong climbed over 4%, though a strong advance in Australia fizzled out. China’s yuan rose after the central bank set the daily reference rate slightly stronger than anticipated, though still the weakest in 12 years. Treasury futures ticked higher.

Australian bond yields, which saw an historic surge on Thursday, retreated as the central bank undertook the first of its daily bond-buying operations, taking up A$5 billion ($3 billion) across the yield curve.

There were signs of buyers returning in U.S. equities Thursday when the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed, with Tesla Inc., Twitter Inc. and Netflix Inc. all up at least 5%. Trump sought to reassure skeptical Republicans that he’s aiming to help workers through the crisis, not necessarily corporations, a priority made all the more urgent after data showed U.S. jobless claims came in higher than expected.

“We are now starting to lean into risk,” Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, told Bloomberg TV. “The tail of this is going to be potentially somewhat more extended than what the overall market thinks, so we’re not going to get back to business as usual for the next three months, but the policy backdrop across the globe will help soften the blow.”

Still looming over everything is the question of how long the economic downturn will last as coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. and Europe. In California, the governor told everyone to stay at home, while the number of dead in Italy has now surpassed those in China.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

Futures on the S&P 500 Index added 1.1% as of 6:32 a.m. in London. The index rose 0.5% on Thursday.Euro Stoxx 50 futures climbed 2.2%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 4.1%.The Shanghai Composite rose 1.5%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.7%.South Korea’s Kospi rose 7.4%.

Currencies

The yen rose 0.7% to 109.93 per dollar.The offshore yuan traded at 7.0915 per dollar, up 0.9%.The euro advanced 0.7% to $1.0764.The Aussie gained 2.7% to 59.01 U.S. cents.

Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid about six basis points to 1.14% Thursday. Futures rose 0.3% on Friday.Australian 10-year yields slumped about 38 basis points to 1.14% after soaring Thursday.

Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 4.4% to $27.04 a barrel.Gold was at $1,495 an ounce, up 1.6%.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asia-stocks-rise-tepid-rally-214042022.html

2020-03-20 06:40:23Z
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