TEHRAN, June 05-Asian stocks steadied on Tuesday as investors paused for breath after the previous day’s rally, although tech-inspired Wall Street gains supported broader sentiment as focus shifted to bullish economic fundamentals, away from trade concerns.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Asian stocks steadied on Tuesday as investors paused for breath after the previous day’s rally, although tech-inspired Wall Street gains supported broader sentiment as focus shifted to bullish economic fundamentals, away from trade concerns.
Spreadbetters expected European stocks to open flat to slightly lower, with Britain's FTSE .FTSE declining 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI little changed and France's CAC .FCHI slipping 0.2 percent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was effectively flat after surging 1.4 percent the previous day.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained 0.2 percent and South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 lost 0.1 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI rose 0.15 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC climbed 0.25 percent after data showed China's services sector expanded at a steady pace in May. [.SS]
Wall Street’s three major indexes rose overnight, led by a rally in tech stocks, pushing the Nasdaq to a record closing high. [.N]
Friday’s better-than-expected May U.S. employment report has helped revive investor optimism about the world’s biggest economy, shifting the focus away from recent trade tensions.
“Strong U.S. data put fundamentals back in the spotlight, just as Italian political concerns were ebbing,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo.
Italy’s anti-establishment parties formed a coalition government on Friday to end three months of deadlock and averting potentially destabilising snap elections.
“The next focal point is the upcoming FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting and whether the Fed shows any indication of accelerating the pace of its rate hikes following the strong employment report,” said Ichikawa.
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to hold a two-day policy meeting starting on June 12.
With risk aversion ebbing in the broader markets, safe-haven government bonds were sold and their yields rose.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield US10YT=RR stood near an 11-day high of 2.946 percent brushed overnight.
The yield had declined to a 1-1/2-month low of 2.759 percent a week ago when Italian political concerns had soured investor sentiment.
The rebound in U.S. yields lifted the dollar to a near two-week high of 109.990 yen JPY= and also helped slow the euro's advance against the greenback.
The euro slipped 0.1 percent to $1.1688 EUR=, nudged off the 12-day peak of $1.1754 touched on Monday on the decrease in concerns towards Italy.
Source: Reuters
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