A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), (left), and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea on Nov 24. (AP)
BANGKOK, Nov 24, (AP): Asian shares were mostly higher and US futures advanced Monday after Wall Street ended on an upbeat note after much drama last week. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. Hong Kong’s benchmark, the Hang Seng, rose 1.8% to 25,667.24. It got a boost from a 5.1% gain for e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has reported strong demand for its new Qwen AI app.
Alibaba is due to report earnings on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite index was virtually unchanged at 3,834.69. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.3% to 8,525.10. In South Korea, the Kospi reversed early gains, falling 0.2% to 3,846.06 on heavy selling of automakers. Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.3% and the Sensex in India was flat.
The future for the S&P 500 rose 0.5% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%. This week, US markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, which will be followed by the Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail rushes. After last week’s ups and downs over AI and Nvidia, traders will focus more on “the backbone of US growth, the consumer, whose spending still drives two-thirds of GDP,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Data on the US economy was scarce during the 6-week US government shutdown, leaving investors struggling to parse trends in the economy. “This makes any sniff of holiday activity – foot traffic, discount depth, card authorizations – disproportionately important. In a data desert, even a puddle looks like a lake,” he said. On Friday, the S&P 500 gained 1% to 6,602.99 and the Dow climbed 1.1% to 46,245.41.
The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9% to 22,273.08. Nearly 90% of stocks in the S&P 500 advanced. It was a fitting finish for a week that left the S&P 500 just 4.2% below its record but also forced investors to stomach the sharpest hour-to-hour swings since a sell-off in April. The jarring moves are testing investors following a monthslong and remarkably smooth surge for stocks, and they come down to two basic as-yet unanswered questions.
Have prices for Nvidia, bitcoin and other stars of Wall Street shot too high? And is the Federal Reserve done with its cuts to interest rates, which would boost the economy and prices for investments? Markets took heart from a speech by the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, who told a conference in Chile that he sees “room for a further adjustment” to interest rates. Other Fed officials have argued against a December cut, saying inflation is still too high.
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