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Asian and European stock markets rose on Wednesday after this week’s decline, as investors welcomed better industrial data from China.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.7 percent and China’s CSI rose 0.2 percent after two days of decline. In Europe, the region-wide Stocks Europe 600 index was 0.1 percent higher at the opening bell as tech and healthcare shares boosted the index after four straight days of decline.
Data showed profits in China’s industrial sector fell 11.7 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of 2023, compared with a larger contraction of 15.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, a sign that recent support measures Can happen. Helping to stabilize the world’s second largest economy.
Energy and industrial stocks were among those that lifted the benchmark CSI 300 index by 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, on Wednesday.
Strong economic data has boosted oil prices, which have already risen 30 percent since June as some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers announced a series of supply cuts through the end of this year.
International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.7 percent to $94.6, while West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. counterpart, rose 1.1 percent to $91.35.
Investors turned to US durable goods orders data due later in the day to gauge how the economy was faring more than a year after the Federal Reserve launched an aggressive monetary tightening campaign to tame inflation. We do.
Economists expect a closely watched gauge of U.S. manufacturing activity to fall 0.5 percent month over month in August, marking a sharp improvement from a 5.2 percent contraction in the previous month.
A resilient US economy so far has provided Fed policymakers with an opportunity to step up restrictive policy, sending long-term Treasury yields to their highest level in several years and helping the dollar reach its strongest level in 10 months.
In government debt markets, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 0.05 percentage point to 4.51 percent on Wednesday, while the yield on the 30-year note rose 0.05 percentage point to 4.65 percent.
The dollar, which strengthens when investors expect higher rates, was flat against a basket of six peer currencies, remaining near its highest level since November 2022.
The contract tracking Wall Street’s S&P 500 and the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 both rose 0.3 percent ahead of the New York open.
Source: www.ft.com
