Record Highs For Dow Jones And S&P

Very strong data coming out of China and the anticipation of the Bank of Japan policy meeting on Thursday have fueled trading volume in Asia. It has also taken the Asian stocks too new heights. Yesterday was a strong trading session in the U.S. where the DJIA and S&P reached record highs.

The turnaround yesterday came after data releases from U.S. dept. Commerce that new orders for manufactured products gained 3 percent in Feb which exceeded market estimations. This data led by positive orders from car companies Ford, GM and Chrysler, further helped buoy the shares into the uptrend. The Dow has now firmly recovered and even doubled from the damage it suffered during the heart of the financial crisis.

The PMI in China for the service sector went up to 55.6 last month from 54.5 in Feb. A positive number which far exceeds the 50 number which is the threshold for positive growth. The figure was helped along by growing construction activity with the construction index rising to 62.5 point in March which is a rise of 4.5 from the month before.

Stocks
High volume of trading in overnight Asian session with the Asian indexes mixed to higher. The Japanese index Nikkei 225 shone with a rise of 3 percent percent ahead of the BoJ meeting on monetary policy. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.05 percent pushed by the positive Chinese PMI data. The South Korean Kospi index fell further overnight as political tensions seem to get worse between North and South Korea everyday.

The DJIA gained 89 points yesterday and reached a high of 14,684 and closed at 14,662. This exceeded the last high which was reached last month, 14,285. The current number more than doubles the level reached by the Dow at its worst point in March 2009. The S&P also finished at a record high yesterday as it touched 1,570.

Forex
Currency market was a whole different story yesterday with very low activity seen in the Asian session. The British pound continued on a slightly bullish trend last night following on from its beating in the European session. The GBP fell 0.04 percent against the EUR and 0.12 percent against the dollar. The USD was broadly higher in Asian session, with 0.09 percent gains against the EUR and 0.11 percent against the Japanese Yen ahead of the BOJ meeting which will see the new governor Kuroda presiding.

Commodities
A strengthening USD pushed the metals prices down with gold losing 0.54 percent and silver losing 0.99 percent. Meanwhile crude lost 0.55 percent as investors speculated that Wednesday supply data would reveal a surprising rise in inventory.

What To Look For Today
You can expect another high volume trading day today with loads of activity. Four Fed Reserve heads are due to speak in the U.S. today. Also watch out for ADP employment change and ISM non-manufacturing reports. Watch out for the inventory supply numbers fro crude oil from the U.S. which are expected to rise which in turn could push down the price of the commodity.