- Asian shares wobble near multi-month high amid mixed signals.
- Sino-American tussle join fears of further delay in US stimulus to combat vaccine hopes, upbeat US data.
- Aussie GDP marked the biggest quarterly fall, RBNZ’s Orr and BOJ’s Wakatabe shows readiness to ease further if needed.
- US ADP Employment Change will be the key data to watch today.
Asian equities remain clueless while heading into Wednesday’s European open. While portraying the same, the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.11% but Japan’s Nikkei 225 gains near 0.30% to 23,200 by the press time.
Further, Australia’s ASX 200 surged to the intraday high of 6,075, currently up 1.75% to 6,054, even as Aussie GDP marked the record quarterly sump of 7.0%. On the same note, NZX 50 also marks 0.70% gains despite the RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr’s offer to use unconventional monetary policy tools. The reason for the New Zealand market optimism could be traced from the central bank’s comments suggesting no concerns with the recently high exchange rates.
Moving on, stocks in China and Hong Kong print losses around 0.50% as the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo marked cold war conditions. Also weighing on the market’s risk-tone could be the comments from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggesting “serious differences “ over the coronavirus (COVID-19) aid package.
On the other hand, news that AstraZeneca begins the final phase of the COVID-19 vaccine trials and a notable spike in the US ISM Manufacturing PMI helped build the market mood. As a result, the US dollar index (DXY) extends the previous day’s recovery moves from May 2018 lows while the S&P 500 Futures also rise around 0.30% to 3,536.
It should be noted that the comments by BOJ Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe join uncertainty over Japanese leadership to also affect the market sentiment. Furthermore, the Bank Indonesia’s (BI) intervention can’t propel the IDX Composite whereas South Korea’s KOSPI and India’s BSE Sensex remain mildly offered by the press time.
Looking forward, market players will wait for the early-signals for Friday’s key US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP), the ADP Employment Change, expected 950K versus 167K prior, for fresh impetus.
Read: ADP Employment Change and Initial Jobless Claims Preview: Hope is not change
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