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Asia markets set to rise as Dow surges to new record overnight
Stocks in Asia were set to trade higher on Thursday following a record for the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street overnight.Futures pointed to a higher open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 23,950 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 23,960. That compared against the Nikkei 225’s last…
Stocks in Asia were set to trade higher on Thursday following a record for the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street overnight.
Futures pointed to a higher open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 23,950 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 23,960. That compared against the Nikkei 225's last close at 23,861.21.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia rose in early trade, with the S&P/ASX 200 up more than 0.6%.
Overnight stateside, the Dow soared 275.08 points higher to close at 29,551.42 while the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to end its trading day on Wall Street at 3,379.45. The Nasdaq Composite also gained 0.8% to close at 9,725.96.
Those moves came as the pace of new reported cases of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak appears to be slowing down — recently hitting their lowest levels since late January. Chinese lawmakers have also taken steps to curb a possible economic downturn from the coronavirus.
“(COVID-19) fears are starting to lessen as the number of new deaths and cases decelerate,” Tapas Strickland, an economist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note. COVID-19 is the official name given by the World Health Organization for the virus that was first reported in Wuhan, China.
“For markets, the development has come ‘like a little prayer' that has been answered and risk sentiment continues to improve,” Strickland said.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.015 after lows around 98.7 earlier.
The Japanese yen, often seen as a safe-haven currency in times of economic uncertainty, traded at 110.08 per dollar after weakening from levels around 109.8 yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6731 after rising from levels below $0.672 yesterday.
— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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