TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose Thursday along with the rest of the world, as oil prices stabilised at lows not seen since before Russia invaded Ukraine. China, however, was an exception, as weak data showed that COVID was putting more pressure on the country’s economy.
Even though the ECB is expected to raise rates and there are worries about an energy crisis, futures markets showed that the rally would continue in Europe later in the session. Futures for the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.4%, and futures for the FTSE edged up 0.9%.
The average of Japan’s Nikkei stocks went up 2.18 percent, and for the first time this month, it went over the 28,000 mark. This happened because the weaker yen helped Japanese exporters.
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MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan went up by 0.57 percent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 went up by 1.63 percent.
Chinese blue chips fell 0.12%, though, after trade data came out on Wednesday that was worse than expected and the lockdown in the city of Chengdu was extended, showing that the country’s strict zero-COVID policy hasn’t changed.
Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis in Hong Kong, said, “Today, the big question for Asia is whether zero-COVID will continue to affect the Chinese economy, which will have an effect on imports.”
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.35%.
Overnight, as bond yields went down, all three of the most important Wall Street indices made big gains.
The markets are waiting for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech later in the day to see if there will be any change in the central bank’s tough stance on inflation.
Jan Nevruzi, an analyst at NatWest Markets, said in a note that he thinks Powell will say that the decision for September hasn’t been made yet, but that the Fed will continue to look at the data.
The FedWatch tool from CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) shows that the likelihood of a third consecutive 75-basis-point increase in interest rates is now about 76%. This is up from 69% a week ago.
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“In the short term, the markets will probably just wait and see,” said Ng. “Whether it’s 50 basis points or 75 basis points is important, but the most important thing is whether inflation can reach its peak and what the Fed’s plan is for raising rates in the future.”
The yen was just below 144 per dollar after dropping almost as far as 145 overnight. At 109.73, the dollar index, which compares the U.S. dollar to a group of currencies from other major trading partners, was up a little.
After hitting a 20-year low of $0.9864 earlier in the week, the euro fell 0.19 percent to $0.99885. Most people think that the European Central Bank will raise rates by 75 basis points (bps) on Thursday at 12:15 GMT to stop inflation from getting out of control.
Also Read: Futures on European stocks decline; German retail sales surprise positively.
Oil prices went down overnight, but they went back up a little bit the next day. However, they stayed below $90 a barrel for the first time since early February because of worries about a global recession. U.S. crude rose 0.88 percent to $82.66 per barrel, and Brent crude went up 0.85 percent to $88.75 per barrel.
Spot gold prices dropped 0.15 percent to $1,715.07 an ounce, and bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was last down 0.29 percent at $19,326.00.
