Asian Shares Rise, Despite The Weak Data

Asian trade: Asian shares posted modest gains in tonight’s session and were helped to advance by the raw material companies, despite a number of releases showing the Japanese economy might be facing a longer recession than previously expected.

Crude oil rose a little more than 8% this week, the biggest weekly gain seen in the last few months. This helped the raw material companies advance, as revenues are likely to rise along with the commodity prices. Oil rose this week, as OPEC threatens to cut oil production. In Japan, a release showed household spending fell for the eighth month in a row in September, while companies plan to cut output at one of the strongest paces seen in the last decades. These two reports put together, show that the Japanese slowdown might go well beyond the second quarter of 2009.

In the overnight markets, the Nikkei gained 47.70 points (0.57%) to 8,421.09, while the Australian S&P/Asx rose 87.40 points (2.44%) to 3,675.40.

Crude oil traded mixed in the Asian session, even though OPEC threatens to cut production. Crude oil for December delivery fell $0.30 to $53.50.

Gold extended the range seen in the last few days. Bullion for immediate delivery fell $1.90 to $813.30.

Previous Wall Street trade: Perhaps so. In any event, markets were happy enough with Mr. Volcker’s appointment as chair of a new panel which will advise Mr. Obama on stabilizing financial markets. Did markets trade positive on the idea Volker can provide some of that much sought after stabilization despite all the gloomy economic news on this and every other day? It's possible but dificult to quantify. Let's just call it a put for Mr. V and go home to our loved ones.

One thing we do know for sure is that markets are up strongly over the last 4 sessions, with the DOW gaining over 1000 points. At the close of floor trading on the NYSE, the DOW was on 8726.61 after gaining 247.14 points (2.91%). The S&P closed on 887.68, up 30.29 points (3.53%) while the NASDAQ finished the day's trading on 1532.10 with a gain of 67.37 points (4.6%).