Asian shares inch higher on Wall Street recovery
Equities pull away from 20-month lows, but investors remain cautious after sharp downturns in global markets during October
Tokyo — Asian stocks pulled away from 20-month lows on Wednesday, thanks to a rebound on Wall Street, although investors remained cautious after the sharp downturns across global equity markets during October. A confluence of factors from China-US trade tensions to worries about US corporate earnings to the end of easy money in development economies have spurred volatility in financial markets in the past few weeks. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.75%, but it was still on track to fall about 11% in October. The index had dropped to its lowest level since February 2017 on Monday as worries over corporate profits weighed heavily on US equities. Wall Street’s three stock indices jumped more than 1% on Tuesday, helped by strong gains for chip and transport stocks as investors took advantage of cheaper prices following the steep recent pullback for equities. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1% and the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.75%, with the gains com...
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