HONG KONG, Sept 2 — Asian investors struggled to take the baton from their Wall Street counterparts today, though tech firms tracked another record on the Nasdaq, boosted by people staying at home.
Traders were also keeping an eye on Washington after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would reach out to the Democrats to work on pushing through a new stimulus package for the beleaguered US economy.
While the wall of cash and central bank pledges of ultra-low interest rates for some time has been key to firing a surge across equities, global titans such as Apple, Samsung and Microsoft are miles ahead of the pack.
“The big theme right now is the unrelenting, record-breaking rally in tech stocks,” Candice Bangsund, at Fiera Capital Corp, said as the Nasdaq notched up a third straight record having rocketed a mind-boggling 80 per cent from its March trough.
However, she added: “The landscape for stocks is great but there’s still, from a macro perspective, a lot of unknowns as to the progression of the virus and, of course, the implications for global growth.”
The run-up in US tech shares has been reflected in Asia and the sector was the standout in bourses across the region.
However, the gains were not enough to bring all the broader markets up.
Tokyo, Seoul, Wellington and Bangkok were all higher but there were losses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, Manila and Jakarta.
London, Paris and Frankfurt rallied in early trade.
Still, OANDA’s Edward Moya said: “With no chance that the Fed will be tightening over the next handful of years, investors continue to pile into stocks.”
Sydney was the best performer, though, rallying more than one per cent after data showing Australia’s virus-hit economy fell into recession for the first time in three decades. Bargain-buying helped the ASX after three days of losses, though the Australian dollar was down 0.5 per cent.
Traders were also keeping an eye on Capitol Hill following reports Mnuchin had called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss a new rescue package, after saying the world’s top economy needed help to get it through the crisis.
“What is most important is that we deliver some relief quickly to the American workers impacted by this,” he told a congressional hearing.
However, with the two sides about a trillion dollars apart on their proposals, Mnuchin is said to favour a slimmed-down deal, leaving more contentious elements out to deal with later in the year—a move Democrats have said they will not agree to.
Key figures around 0810 GMT
Tokyo — Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 per cent at 23,247.15 (close)
Hong Kong — Hang Seng: DOWN 0.3 per cent at 25,120.09 (close)
Shanghai — Composite: DOWN 0.2 per cent at 3,404.80 (close)
London — FTSE 100: UP 1.6 per cent at 5,954.04
Euro/dollar: DOWN at US$1.1890 from US$1.1920 at 2045 GMT
Dollar/yen: UP at 106.03 yen from 105.94 yen
Pound/dollar: DOWN at US$1.3336 from US$1.3383
Euro/pound: DOWN at 89.00 pence from 89.01 pence
West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.8 per cent at US$43.10 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.8 per cent at US$45.93 per barrel
New York — Dow: UP 0.8 per cent at 28,645.66 (close)
Bloomberg News contributed to this story — AFP
