Asian markets extended a global rally on Friday on optimism for corporate earnings after a strong start to the reporting season, while traders cheered better-than-expected data indicating the US recovery remains on track, despite inflation concerns and the imminent end to cheap cash.
Central banks around the world are preparing to start — or in some cases have started — winding back the vast financial support put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has helped economies rebound and pushed equities to record or multiyear highs.
Soaring prices, supply chain snarls and a brewing energy crisis caused by the reopening from lockdowns have put increasing pressure on finance chiefs to act sooner than they had expected to prevent inflation from getting out of control. That has put a brake on a market rally that had lasted for a year and a half.
However, traders have refound some of their mojo this week as strong earnings from banking giants fuel hopes for a standout round of reports.
The S&P 500 on Wall Street had its best day since March, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ also saw big gains.
Asia followed suit, with Taipei rising more than 2 percent and Tokyo adding 1.8 percent.
The TAIEX rose 2.4 percent to 16,781.19 points, gaining 0.9 percent for the week.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Index rose 1.8 percent on Friday, surging 3.6 percent weekly, while the TOPIX gained 1.9 percent to finish the week 3.2 percent higher.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent on Friday, but slipped 0.6 percent for the week.
Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 percent on Friday, ending the week up 0.6 percent.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index on Friday rose 0.3 percent, bringing its weekly gain to 1.9 percent.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong jumped 1.5 percent, having reopened after two days off, taking its weekly gain to 2 percent.
Bangkok and Wellington dipped.
Investors are awaiting the US Federal Reserve’s next move as it plots an exit from its vast bond-buying monetary easing program, with next month or December seen as the beginning, while bets on an early next year interest rate hike are also building.
“We’re likely going to continue to see this elevated inflation and probably well into 2022,” Wealth Enhancement Group’s Nicole Webb said on Bloomberg Television.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained