- Shares in Asia-Pacific trade mostly positive, except for minor losses from China and South Korea, amid US stimulus hopes.
- Vaccine optimism, absence of major negatives on calendar also favor the mood.
- US 10-year Treasury yields drop for the first time in five days.
Although fears of an early scaling back of monetary policy stimulus initially probed equity traders in Asia, optimism surrounding the US covid relief package and vaccine news favors the mood during early Tuesday. Also testing the bears could be the buying from China’s state funds and mixed data from Japan and Australia.
Against this backdrop, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rises 0.30% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 adds 0.90% to 29,000 by the press time even as policymakers from Tokyo downgrade economic forecasts for the fourth-quarter (Q4) Japan GDP.
Elsewhere, Australian PM Scott Morrison rekindled vaccine optimism while saying to be on the track for scheduled immunization. Also supporting the ASX 200, up 0.52% intraday, are welcome figures from National Australia Bank’s (NAB) Business Confidence and Business Conditions figures for February.
New Zealand’s (NZ) NZX 50 struggles for a clear direction as NZ Q4 Manufacturing Sales joins downbeat preliminary reading of sentiment data from the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). Also dragging the kiwi markets could be the red print at China bourses despite state-backed buying. South Korea’s KOSPI and Indonesia’s IDX Composite join the league of mildly weak markets but India’s BSE Sensex prints near 1.0% gains as vaccinations in the democratic country back economic recovery hopes.
Read: China state funds said to buy stocks after plunge escalated – Bloomberg
On a broader front, the US 10-year Treasury yields revisit the sub-1.6% area during the latest declines whereas S&P 500 Futures print small gains as the US policymakers hint one-day delay in the much-awaited stimulus.
Given the lack of major data/events lined up for publishing, global investors keep their eyes on the US coronavirus (COVID-19) stimulus headlines will be the key to watch. It’s worth mentioning that the vaccinations in Asia-Pacific have recently begun and hence the same could also add to the market volatility.
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