(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks rose on Friday as gains in the world’s biggest technology companies helped U.S. stocks rebound.
Japanese stocks rose, Australian stocks were little changed and Hong Kong stock futures fell. U.S. contracts were solid after the S&P 500 rose on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 closing more than 1.5% higher. A strong economy is expected to drive higher profit growth for U.S. companies, and higher margins from big tech companies will be a key driver.
In Asia, U.S. Treasuries rose slightly on Thursday’s sell-off, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield up 4 basis points. US producer prices in March rose significantly compared to the same month last year for the first time in 11 months. Australian and New Zealand bonds came under selling pressure early Friday.
“What will move markets going forward will not be Fed rate cuts, but rather earnings,” said George Ball, chairman of Sanders Morris. It’s doing much better than before.” rate environment. ”
In Asia, the yen held firm after falling further on Thursday. Traders will once again be keeping an eye on the yen, which has fallen against the dollar to its lowest level since 1990, after Japanese authorities warned they would consider all options to counter the yen’s weakness.
“We as authorities are always prepared for any situation, whether this involves currency intervention or not,” Masato Kanda, Japan’s top monetary authority, told reporters Thursday morning. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki later reiterated the warning and told reporters that officials were monitoring the exchange. with a high sense of crisis. ”
Investors will also keep an eye on the offshore yuan after it rose against the US dollar for the fourth time in five trading sessions. The strengthening follows the People’s Bank of China’s support on Thursday.
reduction in interest rate cuts
Larry Tentarelli of Blue Chip Daily Trend Report says the latest PPI readings are constructive, but investors are betting on only one or two rate cuts this year, with the first not expected until the July meeting. They should be prepared that it will not be carried out.
Michael Scholl of Marketfield Asset Management said: “While we understand that this report will be received with a sense of relief, there is nothing very reassuring in it. “There was no new bad news,” he said. .
New York Fed President Williams said the Fed has made “significant progress” in rebalancing its inflation and employment goals, but added there was no need to cut rates “in the very short term.” Richmond’s Thomas Barkin said the U.S. central bank still had work to do to rein in price pressures and could take its time before cutting interest rates.
US earnings season gets into full swing on Friday, when several US banks release their reports. Wall Street expects S&P 500 companies’ earnings per share to rise 3.8% annually in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. Profits for the “Magnificent Seven” group of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia Corp., Meta Platforms Inc., and Tesla Inc. rose 38% in first quarter It is expected that According to BI, quarterly.
Data to be released in other parts of Asia will include Japan’s industrial production, India’s inflation and China’s trade statistics. The Central Bank of Korea is scheduled to announce its monetary policy decision. Markets are closed in Indonesia, Thailand and Dubai.
In commodities, Asian markets were firm in early trading after gold hit a new record on Thursday’s US inflation report. Meanwhile, oil prices rose slightly on Friday after falling in pre-trade as the expansion of US stockpiles overshadowed the possibility of an attack on Israel by Iran or its proxies.
This week’s main events:
The main movements in the market are:
stocks
currency
cryptocurrency
bond
merchandise
This article was produced in partnership with Bloomberg Automation.
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