Asian stocks rose on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s gains as markets reopened amid expectations for a quiet holiday-shortened week of trading.
US futures rose and oil prices stabilized.
Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.2% as details from the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting showed officials divided on the timing and need for a shift from the central bank’s years of lax monetary policy. It rose to 33,681.24.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.9% to 16,661.00, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.6% to 2,915.05, and Chinese video game companies such as Tencent and NetEase recouped losses in the first Hong Kong trading after the government’s policy. tried to allay market concerns About draft guidelines to impose regulations on how companies make money from games. But that gain was dwarfed by losses from Friday’s sharp decline.
NetEase’s Hong Kong-traded shares rose 10.4% on Tuesday, after its Nasdaq-listed stock rose 5.2%. In Hong Kong, Tencent rose 5.9% and Bilibili rose 7.5%.
In the Seoul market, the Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,613.50. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8% to 7,561.20.
Bangkok’s SET fell less than 0.1%, while Mumbai’s Sensex rose 0.7%.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 4,774.75, ending the day less than 0.5% below its all-time high set nearly two years ago. The benchmark index has risen for the eighth straight week, its longest winning streak since 2017.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to end at $37,545.33, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.5% to end at $15,074.57.
Trading was relatively light as US markets reopened after the Christmas holiday. Still, the recent gains have been broad-based, with advancers outnumbering decliners nearly 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Technology and industrial stocks accounted for the lion’s share of the gains. Intel rose 5.2%, the biggest gain among the S&P 500 stocks. Caterpillar added 1.8%.
Energy stocks rose as U.S. crude oil prices rose 2.7%. Hess closed 1.4% higher.
Solid gains in small- and medium-sized company stocks also pushed the market higher, pushing the Russell 2000 index up 1.2%.
Government bond yields were mixed. The yield on 10-year government bonds remained unchanged at 3.90%.
Some stocks soared on news of corporate acquisitions. Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb announced Tuesday that it will acquire RaysBio Inc. in a $4.1 billion deal, just days after acquiring Karuna Therapeutics. 14 billion dollars. Bristol-Myers stock fell 1.6%, but RaysBio more than doubled to $61.40, close to the $62.50 per share it would earn in the deal.
HollySys Automation Technologies shares rose 5.2% after the company received the latest acquisition offer from a consortium led by Dazheng Group Acquisition.
Stratasys rose 13% to $14.82 per share after Nano Dimension said it offered to pay $16.50 per share in cash to acquire the 3D printer maker. Stratasys rejected a takeover offer from Nano Dimension in April.
Gracel Biotechnologies soared 60.3% after the Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company agreed to be acquired by Aztrazeneca.
With less than a week until 2024, the S&P 500 is up more than 24% since the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq is up 44%.
Investors are encouraged by reports such as: Inflation is on the decline Even if the economy looks better than expected.
The Fed is walking a tightrope, trying to slow the economy enough through higher interest rates to control inflation, but not enough to send the country into recession.
In other trading early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 4 cents to $75.53 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard crude, rose 8 cents to $80.93 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 142.79 yen from 142.38 yen. The euro rose to $1.1050 from $1.1044.
Associated Press
