(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks looked set for a steady open Thursday after U.S. shares rallied amid speculation that the economic recovery will weather temporary disruption from the omicron virus strain outbreak.
Futures for Japan, Australia and Hong Kong climbed. The S&P 500 is once again closing in on its record high, with sentiment aided by rising consumer confidence and home sales. Studies signaling omicron may be less likely to land patients in hospital than the delta variant also helped the mood.
At the same time, officials remain cautious since omicron spreads quickly. In China, the central city of Xi’an is tightening rules to curb a Covid outbreak.
The dollar fell and longer maturity Treasury yields dipped. Oil rallied above $72 a barrel to its highest in about four weeks. Gold climbed.
A gauge of global stocks is up more than 2% so far this month, leaving the index up 15% for the year and on course to surpass 2020’s gain. Markets, though, have been volatile of late as traders evaluated virus risks and moves toward tighter monetary policy to check high inflation.
“Markets hate uncertainty and not knowing, and when omicron hit the markets, we didn’t know,” Carol Schleif, BMO Family Office deputy chief investment officer, said on Bloomberg Television. “But it seems like it’s edging toward something more positive.”
The latest U.S. figures also showed that third-quarter gross domestic product growth was revised up.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc. rebounded from session lows Wednesday, following a drop of over 1% after Bloomberg News reported the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is pushing forward with antitrust scrutiny of the company’s cloud computing business.
What to watch this week:
- Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks Thursday
- U.S. initial jobless claims, personal income, durable goods, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, new home sales on Thursday
- Friday: U.S. markets are closed. European markets close earlier
For more market analysis, read our MLIV blog.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- The S&P 500 rose 1%
- The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%
- Nikkei 225 futures rose 0.7%
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index futures added 0.5%
- Hang Seng Index futures gained 0.4% earlier
Currencies
- The Japanese yen was at 114.11 per dollar
- The offshore yuan was at 6.3781 per dollar
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
- The euro was at $1.1331
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped on basis point to 1.45%
- Australia’s 10-year yield rose one basis point to 1.60%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.3% to $72.76 a barrel
- Gold was at $1,803.71 an ounce
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
