From ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer
BANGKOK (AP) – World stocks started the week off with a rally as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed above 30,000 for the first time since August 1990.
European markets opened higher on Monday after a march into Asia. Shanghai and Hong Kong were closed for the Lunar New Year. U.S. markets are closed on Monday for Washington’s birthday.
Optimism Washington will impose on trillions of dollars in more aid to the economy and encouraging corporate earnings reports have helped stocks soar this month, along with hopes that the coronavirus vaccine launch will set the stage for one will create stronger economic growth in the second half of this year.
Democrats have chosen to use a legislative process that does not require Republican support to pass President Joe Biden’s proposed $ 1.9 trillion package.
“Markets remain focused on introducing biden stimuli and vaccines as the magical panacea for the world’s pandemic diseases,” Oanda’s Jeffrey Halley said in a comment. This has led to higher stock prices and the world is full of economic funds seeking returns in a world where interest rates are around zero percent, he said.
The German DAX rose by 0.3% to 14,097.85 and the CAC40 in Paris by 0.5% to 5,733.72. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% to 6,651.04. The US futures also rose, with the S&P 500 contract gaining 0.3%. The future of the Dow industry rose 0.4%.
The strong buy in Tokyo was driven by news that the Japanese economy had grown at an annual rate of nearly 13% over the past quarter, as well as strong corporate earnings reports. It was the second quarter in a row after a downturn that was drastically worsened by the effects of the pandemic.
The recovery should put the economy on track to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels by next year, aided by a recovery in export demand in the US and other major trading partners, Capital Economies’ Marcel Thieliant said in one Report.
Japan recently re-imposed a state of emergency in Tokyo and several other prefectures to tackle the resurgence of outbreaks. However, continued corporate investment and government spending is expected to help offset the impact on travel, restaurants and other hardest hit sectors.
“And while most economists expect another decline this quarter due to the second state of emergency, we assume that production will remain largely unchanged in the first quarter and will increase more this year than almost everyone expected,” said Thieliant.
The Nikkei 225 closed 1.9% at 30,084.15. It was the highest since August 1990, when Japan’s bubble economy began to implode from a high of nearly 39,000 in 1989.
Other Asian markets also posted strong growth. The Seoul Kospi rose 1.5% to 3,147.00 and the Indian Sensex rose 1.1% to 54,102.41. In Australia, the S & P / ASX 200 rose 0.9% to 6,868.90.
The Thai SET benchmark index rose 0.9% after the government forecast the economy will grow 2.5% to 3.5% this year after shrinking 6.1% in 2020 since the government curtailed international travel and other activities to combat the pandemic.
On Friday, tech companies held a late afternoon rally on Wall Street that completed a week of shaky trading. The major stock indices reached all-time highs.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 3,934.83, a record high for the second year in a row. It was the second consecutive weekly win.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq network rose 0.5% to 14,095.47, also a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also hit a new high, rising 0.1% to 31,458.40. The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.2% to 2,289.36.
A majority of companies have now reported their most recent winning round and the results have been surprisingly good. Around 75% of the companies in the S&P 500 have published results that, according to FactSet, show an overall growth of 2.8%. This is a marked reversal from the 13% contraction analysts forecast at the end of September.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.21% from 1.20% on late Friday.
US benchmark crude rose $ 1.26 to $ 60.73 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday it rose $ 1.23 to $ 59.47 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 99 cents to $ 63.42 a barrel.
The US dollar rose to 105.22 Japanese yen from 104.99 yen on late Friday. The euro rose from $ 1.2123 to $ 1.2139.
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