By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asian stocks were mostly up on Tuesday morning, boosted by a record run in the U.S. markets overnight over high hopes for a COVID-19 treatment.
Cambridge, MA-based Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) said via a press release on Monday that it was in “advanced exploratory talks with the European Commission to supply 80 million doses of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19, as part of the European Commission’s goal to secure early access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Europe.”
The announcement comes on the back of the U.S.’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s emergency use approval on Sunday for a potential COVID-19 treatment using blood plasma from patients who have recovered from the virus.
“A steady flow of progress with COVID-19 treatments/vaccines is delivering the latest boost to risk appetite,” OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya said in a note.
But in the same note, Moya warned that “market breadth however does not support the surge to record high territory for U.S. indexes.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.79% by 11:17 PM ET (4:17 AM GMT).
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.41%, ahead of the Bank of Korea setting its monetary policy on Thursday. Although the country reported 280 COVID-19 cases as of midnight Monday, down from the 397 cases reported as of midnight Saturday it ordered the closure of most schools in Seoul and the surrounding areas earlier in the day.
Down Under, the ASX 200 was up 0.50%. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia provided a bleak picture of the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19, warning that the current recession will extend into a third quarter, the longest slump since 1982-83, and unemployment will remain elevated in 2021 due to a tepid recovery.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged down 0.17%, reversing earlier gains. Although the city recorded only nine new cases on Monday, researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) also said that a man in his 30s was reinfected with COVID-19, almost five months after his initial infection, and the first case of COVID-19 reinfection globally.
China’s Shanghai Composite inched up 0.07% and the Shenzhen Component was up 0.52%. U.S. officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in a “regularly scheduled call,” with a U.S. Trade Representative’s Office statement saying that both sides saw progress made on resolving issues in the phase one trade deal between the two countries.
Investors are also looking to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Thursday, where he is expected to give further guidance on the Fed’s monetary policy framework review.