Asian Markets Track Wall Street Higher

Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Tuesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid optimism the US Fed could resort to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024. Traders seem reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Fed’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. Asian markets closed mixed on Monday.

Although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates, traders are likely to focus more closely on the central bank’s accompanying statement and projections.

The markets also await a slew of central bank decisions this week, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Norges Bank.

Extending the gains in the previous two sessions, the Australian stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving above the 7,200 level, with gains in index heavyweights and financial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 34.90 points or 0.49 percent to 7,233.90, after touching a high of 7,241.20 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 35.60 points or 0.48 percent to 7, 445.80. Australian stocks closed slightly higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, Fortescue Metals is gaining 1.5 percent and Mineral Resources is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is edging down 0.2 percent. BHP Group is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy, Origin Energy and Santos are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each, while Beach energy is losing almost 3 percent.

Among tech stocks, WiseTech Global and Xero are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Afterpay owner Block is edging up 0.3 percent. Appen is declining more than 2 percent and Zip is slipping almost 5 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Gold Road Resources is losing almost 1 percent and Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent, while Evolution Mining and Newmont are edging up 0.1 to 0.5 percent each. Northern Star resources is flat.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are edging up 0.4 percent each, while National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.659 on Tuesday.

Extending the gains the previous session, the Japanese stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 moving to a tad below the 33,000 mark, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains in exporters and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 32,983.37, up 191.57 points or 0.58 percent, after touching a high of 33,172.13 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing almost 1 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining almost 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing almost 1 percent and Toyota is edging down 0.5 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 1 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 2 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing more than 2 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is edging down 0.5 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing more than 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is down almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is gaining almost 1 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is adding almost 2 percent, while Sony and Canon are edging up 0.1 to 0.3 percent each.

Among the other major gainers, Renesas Electronics is gaining more than 5 percent and Nichirei is adding almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Resona Holdings in losing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, producer prices in Japan were up 0.2 percent on month in November, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday. That was in line with expectations following the upwardly revised 0.3 percent contraction in October (originally -0.4 percent). On a yearly basis, producer prices rose 0.3 percent – exceeding expectations for 0.1 percent following the upwardly revised 0.9 percent gain in the previous month (originally 0.8 percent).

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 145 yen-range on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan are higher by between 0.1 and 0.7 percent each. New Zealand is bucking the trend and is down 0.6 percent. Malaysia is relatively flat.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Monday but managed to end the day moderately higher. With the upward move, the major averages once again finished the session at their best closing level in well over two years.

The major averages closed just off their highs of the session. The Dow climbed 157.06 points or 0.4 percent to 36,404.93, the Nasdaq edged up 28.51 points or 0.2 percent to 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.4 percent to 4,622.44.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.

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