Asian stocks opens week with incremental increase, dollar down from U.S. jobs data
Asian stocks open the week with a positive note as President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing the plan to roll back financial regulations, and notable support from the fast paced growth of Asian jobs. Stocks that received a head start for the week are; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, Japan’s Nikkei, Korea’s SEU, and the Shanghai Composite Index.
Asian stocks opens strong trading week
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained as much as 0.4 percent as of 3:35 p.m. in Tokyo, while Japan’s Topix also saw an increase of 0.4 percent, breaking the decreasing streak which led to the biggest weekly decline starting last year’s November. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also opened the week optimistically; increasing 0.5% just after the bell rings for Monday’s trading. While Hang Seng China Enterprises Index took a 1.5% increase as insurers flock because of the looming speculation of the Chinese pension funds entering the stock market.
On the other hand, India’s Senses also joins the party garnering a total of 0.8 percent increase opening the week, the largest increase it has seen since October. While Taiwan’s Taiex also increases a total of 0.9 percent, the biggest jump since June of 2015, New Zealand’s Market was closed because of the holiday. Global financial shares are off for a bullish second day after President’s Trump roll back regulations in hopes to prevent the next financial crisis.
Japanese stocks higher from U.S. jobs data
The Japanese stock Nikkei opened the week with a 0.3% increase, shattering last week’s biggest slump in the past seven months. Japanese banks are leading the positive week gaining grounds, sharing gains in U.S. bank stocks. The review of the Dodd-Frank Act that was ordered by President Donald Trump last Friday led the U.S. banks rising a total of 4.6%, the legislation is about tightening of bank oversight following the global financial crisis last 2010.
While Friday’s U.S. jobs reported a total of 227,000 workers in January, a strong monthly increase last felt in the month of September, but unemployment data also rose 4.8% as the magnanimous amount of people are scrambling to get a job, and because of the slower-by-the-day wage growth. Friday’s data helped push the Asian stocks inches higher in earlier Monday trading according to Matt Weller of Faraday Research:
The U.S. economy was able to create more jobs than expected, without a commensurate rise in wages, [suggesting] that we’re further from ‘full employment’ than many bulls were hoping.
According to Masayuki Kubota, the chief of online brokerage Rakuten Securities in Tokyo, the recent volatility in Japanese equities is brought by economic and political factors. The growing U.S. economy is serving a positive hold for Japanese stocks, although a threat of Trump labeling Japan a currency manipulator is still at bay. Kubota said,
Economic situations are getting better while political situations are getting worse. So markets are uncertain about which way to go.
Dollar continues bearish streak against the yen
The U.S. dollar decreased a total of 0.1% at 112.54 in early Tokyo trade; the WSJ dollar Index was flat at 90.34 against the basket of currencies. The drawback is currently issuing a three-day streak, as falling treasury yields continue to weigh, more specifically with the mediocre U.S. jobs data.
An analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman noted
The yen was the strongest of the major currencies last week, gaining 2.2% against the greenback.
The yen's gains ended a two-week drift lower, during which it lost about 0.5%. The U.S. dollar successfully tested the JPY112 level twice, and the bounces (~JPY114.00 and ~JPY113.50) appeared to lack conviction. The Slow Stochastic has been trending higher since January 19, but last week leveled out and rolled over. The MACDs have not yet turned, though a turn still seems near.