SINGAPORE — Stocks across Asia-Pacific jumped on Wednesday, as Wall Street continued rebounding from the recent omicron-induced drop, with tech shares in relief-rally mode.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 bounced 1% in early trade, and the Topix climbed 0.67%. Japan reported that its economy shrank 3.6% in the third quarter, worse than the initial estimate of a 3.0% contraction, revised government data showed on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.23%. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 bounced 0.64%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.22%.
In Hong Kong, Chinese social media giant Weibo is set to make its market debut on Wednesday, in what would be its secondary listing at an offer price of $272.80 Hong Kong dollars ($34.98) per share. Its main listing is on the Nasdaq. This comes as Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi says it will start delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, and make plans to list in Hong Kong instead.
Weibo’s Nasdaq-listed stock has plummeted more than 10% in the past week.
Stocks stateside continued to rebound from the recent drop, as investors grew less fearful of the potential economic impact from the new omicron coronavirus variant.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 492.40 points, or 1.4%, to 35,719.43. The S&P 500 added 2.07% to 4,686.75 and sat about 1% away from its all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite led the market rally, jumping 3% to 15,686.92. It was the best day since March 1 for the S&P 500, and the best day since March 9 for the Nasdaq.
“Risk sentiment rebounded further as markets become more optimistic that Omicron will not impede the global economic recovery. Pledges from China to support economic growth also helped alleviate some of the fears,” Brian Martin and Daniel Hynes of ANZ Research wrote in a Wednesday note.
“Markets now expect further monetary policy easing in China after the People’s Bank of China said it will reduce bank reserve requirements,” the note added. China announced Monday that it would cut the reserve requirement ratio, or the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, for the second time this year.
Still, investors will continue to keep an eye on omicron Covid developments, with the U.S. CDC saying Tuesday that the new variant has now been found in 50 countries and 19 states across the U.S.
Currencies and oil
Oil prices fell back a little during Asia hours, after spiking for most of the week. U.S. crude inched down 0.5% to $71.68 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was little changed at 96.369 — climbing from levels around 96.2 earlier.
The Japanese yen traded at 113.37 per dollar, as it continued to weaken. The Australian dollar was at $0.7119, continuing its ascent since the past week.
Source: CNBC