Asian stocks surged after the US government proposed buying US$700 billion in bank assets and were led higher by financial and commodity companies.
Australia and Taiwan restricted the short selling of equities.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Macquarie Group Ltd rose more than 4 percent on the US Treasury’s plans to clean up bank balance sheets. Fortescue Metals Ltd jumped 25 percent after Australia’s regulator banned speculators from borrowing stocks and selling them to profit from falling prices. Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行) led Chinese shares higher after the securities regulator made it easier for companies to buy back stock.
“The positive thing about the Treasury plan is that it addresses the entire system, the bad debts and assets, rather than one by one,” said David Ng, who is buying financial shares for the US$1 billion in assets he helps manage at Hwang-DBS Asset Management Sdn in Kuala Lumpur. “The buying has been triggered by the short-selling bans. That’s been the main driver.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 2.8 percent to 117.37 as of 5:23pm in Tokyo, extending Friday’s 5.5 percent jump.
The regional measure tumbled to the lowest in three years last week as the credit crisis forced Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc into bankruptcy. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.4 percent today to 12,090.59.
The US dollar dropped against the yen on concern a US government plan to buy US$700 billion in troubled assets from banks will widen the country’s budget deficit.
The currency reached a three-week low against the euro before reports this week that may show tighter lending rules contributed to a drop in US home sales and durable goods orders.
The greenback also fell against the Swiss franc as two-year Treasury yields declined for the first time in three days on bets the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
“Problems with the US deficit will haunt the dollar,” said Masanobu Ishikawa, general manager of foreign exchange at Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow Ltd. “Spending such a large amount on this rescue package will remind traders that the fiscal health of the US is set to worsen.”
The dollar fell to ¥106.05 as of 5:28pm in Tokyo, from ¥107.45 in New York late on Friday. The US currency declined to US$1.46 per euro, the lowest since Sept. 2, and traded at US$1.4575 from US$1.4466. The dollar declined to 1.0965 Swiss francs from SF1.1054. The euro bought ¥154.67 from ¥155.46.
Japan’s 10-year bonds fell on the US government’s plan to revive the country’s financial system by injecting as much as US$700 billion into markets, sending the Nikkei 225 higher for a second day.
The notes snapped two days of gains as the Nikkei 225 climbed 1.4 percent following a 4 percent increase in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on Friday.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
RSS