BEIJING (`) – Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday after encouraging US jobs data but are heading for double-digit losses for the year.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney have made progress. Oil prices rose slightly.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose on Thursday after the number of people filing for unemployment benefits edged up last week despite repeated rate hikes to cool inflation as economic activity slowed.
“Considering market news has been sparse, the move to the upside has the hallmarks of a dead cat bounce,” SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes said in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4% to 3,085.96. The Chinese benchmark is on track to end 2022 down more than 14% after the world’s second largest economy was hit by anti-virus controls and a crackdown on corporate debt.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 26,168.45. It’s heading for an annual loss of nearly 10%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 19,803.77. It’s down more than 14% this year.
Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 7,057.40. New Zealand declined while Southeast Asian markets rose.
South Korean markets were closed for a public holiday. The country’s benchmark Kospi index is heading for a loss of more than 25% for the year.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.7% to 3,849.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1% at 33,220.80. The Nasdaq Composite was up 2.6% to 10,478.09.
Every major US index is headed for a loss in December. Companies in the S&P 500 posted record earnings in 2022, but the index will end the year down about 20%, which would be the benchmark’s biggest annual decline since 2008.
Investors are concerned about a series of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia to tame inflation, which is at multi-decade highs. They fear that central banks are ready to trigger a recession if necessary.
The Fed’s interest rate is in a range of 4.25% to 4.5% after seven hikes this year. The US Federal Reserve forecasts it will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. Their forecast calls for no rate cut before 2024.
In energy markets, the reference price for US crude rose 19 cents to $78.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents on Thursday to $78.40. Brent crude, used as a price base for international oil trading, rose 10 cents to $83.56 a barrel in London. In the previous session, it lost $1 to $82.26 a barrel.
The dollar fell to 132.57 yen from 132.90 yen on Thursday. The euro fell from $1.0677 to $1.0659.
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