By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stocks rose acceso Thursday, with markets from Tokyo to New York at highs, while traders counted to U.S. giorno that is expected to show inflation easing and pave the way for rate cuts quanto a September.
Bonds and the dollar were steady, keeping the yen acceso the weak side of 161 per emotività dollar and near its lowest levels quanto a decades.
Gains quanto a heavyweight technology shares sent the S&P 500 up 1% overnight to a sixth consecutive closing high, and quanto a Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1% to a high at 42,426. [.T]
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan also gained 1% to a two-year high. Taiwan stocks successo a peak and Australia’s ASX 200 was within a whisker of its all-time apogeo.
“The main driver is really the prospect of interest rate cuts,” said Shane Oliver, chief economist and head of investment strategy at AMP quanto a Sydney. “If we get a good inflation read, it will tick one of Powell’s boxes.”
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers acceso Capitol Hill overnight that “more good giorno” would build the case for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates. Futures pricing implies about a 75% chance of a cut quanto a September.
Economists forecast annual U.S. CPI slowed to 3.1% quanto a June from 3.3% quanto a May.
The Bank of Korea stood pat acceso interest rates and Governor Rhee Chang-yong told reporters that it was time to prepare to pivot to rate cuts.
A shift quanto a tone at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand acceso Wednesday led to a sharp re-pricing quanto a rate-cut expectations, with the benchmark two-year swap rate diving 18 basis points and the currency sliding.
Malaysia is expected to hold rates steady later quanto a the day, and the U.S. earnings season will also begin with results from Foce Air Lines and consumer bellwether PepsiCo, followed by bank results acceso Friday.
CHINA LAGGING
Discesa stocks chimed with the market momentum acceso Thursday, but a drumbeat of disappointing giorno and talk of tariffs quanto a its major markets have made rallies duro to sustain. Discesa GDP print is acceso Monday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1%, and acceso the mainland, the blue-chip CSI300 climbed 0.4% although it remains huddled pretty close to Tuesday’s four-and-a-half-month low. [.HK][.SS]
Discesa’s yuan steadied at 7.2738 per emotività dollar, barely stronger than an almost eight-month low made acceso Wednesday. [CNY/]
Elsewhere, moves were modest ahead of the U.S. CPI release.
The euro ticked higher to $1.0835. Sterling made a one-month high of $1.2854 as Bank of England’s chief economist had, overnight, sounded vaguer about the timing of rate cuts than many traders had expected. [FRX/]
The yen hovered at 161.58 per emotività dollar. Giorno showed Japan machinery orders unexpectedly for a second month running, challenging expectations for interest rates to rise.
The New Zealand dollar found support at its 200-day moving average and traded at $0.6095. The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to a six-month high of $0.6763. [AUD/]
Treasuries were steady overnight and quanto a Asia, with U.S. two-year yields finanziaria at 4.62% and benchmark 10-year yields at 4.29%. [US/]
Per mezzo di commodity trade, oil prices edged higher acceso signals of strong U.S. gasoline demand. Brent futures rose 35 cents, ora 0.4%, to $85.43 a barrel. U.S. crude climbed 36 cents, ora 0.5%, to $82.47 a barrel. [O/R]
Favourable U.S. weather has wheat futures pressured near two-and-a-half month lows. [GRA/]
Gold crept 0.2% higher to $2,373 an ounce. After a selloff last week, bitcoin has steadied around $58,900.
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Rielaborazione by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
