Asian stocks follow Wall Street higher

Tokyo — Asian stocks rose broadly on Friday, tracking Wall Street’s overnight rise to record highs, as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s message for careful interest rate cuts even with the expectation for big fiscal spending under incoming President Donald Trump.

US treasury yields pushed to new lows in Asian hours, keeping the dollar under pressure after its biggest decline versus major peers in more than six weeks on Thursday.

Asia-Pacific stocks were on track for a 3.1% rally this week, after quickly recovering from a knee-jerk dip on US election night, which spurred worries of debilitating trade tariffs, not least in China.

However, optimism over stimulus from Beijing buoyed sentiment as the weeklong National People’s Congress Standing Committee meeting concludes on Friday with officials holding a briefing. Sources previously told Reuters that Chinese fiscal spending could be increased in the event of a second Trump presidency.

Mainland Chinese blue chips were up 0.5% by 1.55am GMT, after a 3% surge on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1%.

Japan’s Nikkei added 0.25%, up 3.7% for the week.

Australia’s stock benchmark climbed 1%, and Taiwan’s benchmark gained 0.7%.

Global stocks, led by Wall Street, are headed for a 3.3% weekly advance, and stand at a record high.

Trump swept back to the White House on Tuesday with Republicans taking back the Senate and potentially increasing their House majority, though votes are still being counted. The outcome defied polls that predicted a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Kamala Harris.

Investor expectations that Trump would lower corporate taxes and loosen regulations sent all three major Wall Street indices to record peaks on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended those highs on Thursday, with Fed chair Jerome Powell signalling continued, patient policy easing. The Dow ended flat.

“We think that the economy, and we think our policies, are both in a very good place, a very good place,” Powell said in his post-meeting news conference.

“We don’t know what the timing and substance of any policy changes will be,” Powell said, referring to the incoming Trump administration, whose tariffs and immigration policies are expected by analysts and investors to be inflationary.

US two-year treasury yields, which are highly sensitive to monetary policy expectations, edged down to 4.2119% on Friday, compared with a more than three-month high of 4.3120% on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, ticked up slightly to 104.53, but that followed a 0.7% drop on Thursday, its biggest since August 23. On Wednesday, it soared 1.53%, the most in more than two years.

“Markets have already gone through the ‘honeymoon period’ for the president-elect, and dollar and US rates now are in the ‘window period’, when they consider the policy outlook,” said Shoki Omori, chief Japan desk strategist at Mizuho Securities.

“The key is whether the president-elect and his team want more fiscal issuance next year,” and market participants would again need to be alert for potentially market-moving posts from Trump on social media, Omori said.

Bitcoin was flat at $76,000, after a nearly 10% surge this week, hitting a record peak of $76,980 on Thursday. Trump has vowed to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet”.

Gold struggled to make any additional headway after its rollercoaster week, easing 0.2% to $2,701.55 in the latest session. It slumped more than 3% on Wednesday, but bounced 1.8% overnight. Last week it surged to a record high of $2,790.15.

Oil prices edged lower on Friday, after gains of about 1% overnight as the market weighed how president-elect Donald Trump’s policies would affect supplies and as drillers cut output while bracing for Hurricane Rafael.

Brent crude oil futures were last down 0.22% at $75.46 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude eased 0.35% to $72.11.

Reuters