BANGKOK (`) — Asian stocks rose Thursday, with Chinese benchmarks rising more than 1%, after Wall Street posted modest gains this holiday week.
US futures rose slightly and oil prices were mixed.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index was an outlier in the region, losing 0.5% to 33,519.61. Speculation about whether and when the Bank of Japan might ease its long-standing monetary policy and raise its key interest rate from minus 0.1% has sent stocks further wobbling in the world's third-largest economy.
BOJ policymakers are waiting to see what kind of wage increases are expected in 2024, as part of the central bank's strategy to keep lending loose to spur stronger growth.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 1.5% to 16,876.69 on strong buying in technology and real estate stocks. It has lost about 14% this year as China's economy has stalled despite the country reopening after easing COVID-19 precautions.
Online grocery supplier Meituan rose 4.3% and real estate developer Sino-Ocean Group Holding gained 3.5%.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.1% to 2,947.01.
South Korea's Kospi rose 0.9% to 2,638.04 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 7,600.50.
India's Sensex gained 0.4% and Bangkok's SET rose 0.3%.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 4,781.58. It is up 24% over the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to close at 37,656.52.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to 15,099.18. With a gain of 44%, it has outperformed other major indices this year.
Trading was subdued with two trading days left in the year. The S&P 500 has had its eighth consecutive week of success and is just below its all-time high set in January 2022.
Bond yields fell significantly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 3.81% early Thursday, compared with 3.90% late Tuesday. Yields have fallen on hopes that inflation has cooled enough for the Federal Reserve to consider cutting interest rates in 2024.
Several biotech companies have made big moves after informing investors about recent developments in drug development. Cytokinetics increased 82.5% due to an encouraging study update on a possible treatment for heart disease. Iovance Biotherapeutics fell 18.7% after a trial of a possible lung cancer treatment was paused due to a possible safety issue.
The New York Times rose 2.8% after filing a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement to end the practice of using their stories to train chatbots without permission.
The last week of 2023 is missing key US economic updates. Overall, investors were encouraged by reports that inflation is falling, although the economy appears to be stronger than expected. The Fed is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy through high interest rates enough to temper inflation, but not so much that it plunges the country into recession.
Inflation slowed to a rate of 2.6% in November, according to a measure closely watched by the Fed. That's down from 7.1% in mid-2022 and closer to the central bank's inflation target of 2%. US economic growth has been stable since the decline in mid-2022 and accelerated significantly in the third quarter of 2023.
The data has raised hopes that the economy is likely to avoid a recession, or at least a severe recession. They have also encouraged Wall Street to bet that the Fed is done raising interest rates and will likely move to rate cuts in the new year. The central bank has held interest rates steady since its July meeting and Wall Street expects it to begin cutting rates as early as March.
In further trading on Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil prices fell 7 cents to $74.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday it fell by $1.46.
Brent crude, the international standard, was unchanged at $79.54 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 141.30 Japanese yen from 141.84 yen. Expectations of a change in the BOJ's stance have given new strength to the yen, while hopes of easing US interest rates have weakened the dollar.
The euro rose to $1.1113 from $1.1106.
` business reporter Damian J. Troise contributed.
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