Asian markets rallied for a third day yesterday to wrap up a tumultous week as investors took heart from Wall's Street's gains overnight and positive US jobs figures.
Investors welcomed details of a tax rebate for American consumers announced as part of US President George W. Bush's economic stimulus plan. The tax rebate will put US$600 to US$1,200 in most taxpayers' pockets.
"The markets are reacting to news that Bush and Congress have agree to accelerate tax rebates for US consumers so they can go out and buy more exports from Asia," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong.
European markets also rose in early trading, and US stock index futures suggested that Wall Street would also advance. Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 56 points, or 0.45 percent, to 12,421, while NASDAQ Composite Index futures were up 19.50 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,856.5.
Markets across Asia turned in robust gains, with stocks in Tokyo and Hong Kong nearly erasing steep losses suffered earlier this week.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 average surged 536.38 points, or 4.10 percent, to close at 13,629.16, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 6.7 percent to 25,122.37 points.
India's benchmark Sensex rose 6.8 percent, while markets in Australia, South Korea and the Philippines also put in healthy advances. China's Shanghai benchmark index rose 1 percent.
Asian markets plunged on Monday and Tuesday on worries about a slowdown in the US, a key export market and the world's biggest economy.
They rebounded after the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by three-quarters of a point on Tuesday, a move that also restored some investor confidence on Wall Street.
For the week, Hong Kong's market -- which tumbled a combined 13.7 percent on Monday and Tuesday -- dipped just 0.3 percent, while the Nikkei fell 1.7 percent.
In early European trading yesterday, the UK's FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX gained 1.6 percent to 6,931.18 and France's CAC 40 climbed 1 percent.
Investors were cheered by gains on Thursday on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrials rose for a second day after the US Department of Labor said the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week fell for a fourth straight week.
But traders are searching for clues about the US economy in hopes of determining whether it will soon pick up or perhaps slow and tip into recession.
A recovery in the dollar against the yen yesterday helped lift Japanese exporters' stocks, with Toyota Motor Corp jumping 6.3 percent, Honda Motor Co rising 6.5 percent and Sony Corp climbing 2.4 percent. The dollar was trading at ¥107.57, up from ¥106.79 late Thursday in New York.
Japanese Economy Minister Hiroko Ota told a parliamentary committee yesterday that the "direct impact of the US subprime loan problem on Japan has been limited." But she added weak share prices could dampen consumer appetite.
Hong Kong property stocks like Sun Hun Kai Properties led the market on expectations that the Fed would again slash rates when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hong Kong banks usually match US rate cuts as the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the greenback.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.88 percent to 12,378.61 on Thursday, following a 2.5 percent surge on Wednesday.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
RSS