US stocks reclaimed some of their earlier gains as traders weighed economic data and company news.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rose, but are still off the highs of the day. The dollar dropped. The 10-year US Treasury yield advanced to around 3.79%.
Markets were ebullient earlier after data highlighted a resilient US economy and China’s top leaders pledged to support fiscal spending. US stock indexes were also propelled higher by Micron Technology Inc., which gave a strong forecast aided by AI demand. On the other hand, news of the Justice Department’s probe of Super Micro Computer Inc. — also a beneficiary of the AI boom — pushed its shares lower.
Now, traders are awaiting data that could give them bigger clues about the US economy’s health and the Federal Reserve’s path ahead. The US central bank’s preferred price metric and a snapshot of consumer demand released on Friday will give them just that.
“We think there is the potential that economic data will be more resilient, especially on jobs, than the market is expecting,” said Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities.
Earlier, revised data showed the US economy emerged from the pandemic in better shape than initially expected. A decline in US jobless claims underscored the resilience of the labour market. But investors who were waiting for commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday didn’t get any details on the economic outlook or path for monetary policy.
China Doubts
The bid to revive growth by China’s top leaders on Thursday added to a slew of measures from Beijing this week that have supercharged local assets. The CSI 300 Index is headed for its biggest weekly gain in almost a decade.
However, questions remain about the long-term impact of the measures.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow we are going to see a bit of a pullback,” Helen Jewell, chief investment officer at BlackRock Fundamental Equities EMEA, told Bloomberg TV. “This is what is happening in the markets right now — you end up risk-on one day, risk-off the next day. The Chinese economy is still very fragile.”
Swiss Cut
Elsewhere, the Swiss National Bank cut borrowing costs by a quarter point at a third straight meeting and warned of more to come if needed in its attempt to contain the strength of the franc.
In commodities, oil slid for the second day as Saudi Arabia was reportedly committed to increasing output in December, while Libya named its new central bank governor, opening the way to reviving some crude production.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asian-stocks-rise-dollar-strengthens-224113695.html
