6 hours Ago By Bloomberg
In this article: (Bloomberg) -- Asian futures broadly pointed to gains after US stocks climbed as President Donald Trump struck a better-than-feared tone on global trade and speculation grew that his policies will further boost Corporate America. Most Read from Bloomberg Australian equities edged higher at the open while shares in Tokyo were poised to climb, although Hong Kong stocks looked set to decline. Contracts for US equities advanced in early Asian trading after the S&P 500 rose almost 1% with Trump expected to announce a new investment push for artificial intelligence led by Softbank Group Corp.
, OpenAI LLC, and Oracle Corp. Treasury yields hovered near their lowest levels of the year. While it’s early days, US-China relations are off to an unexpectedly warm start after Trump returned to the White House.
Even though he didn’t commit to a concrete plan for Chinese tariffs, the US president did say he is considering a 10% levy in retaliation for the flow of fentanyl from the country, which sent the dollar higher. “Risky assets should benefit from deregulation and tariffs emerging as not so bad as feared,” said Mohit Kumar at Jefferies International Ltd. “For rates, less onerous tariffs and likely lower oil prices should be a positive.
” As markets focused their attention on relations between the two economic superpowers, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang told the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that his nation will expand its imports “to promote balanced trade.” Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed ties with Russia during a video call with Vladimir Putin as he urged deeper cooperation in response to “external uncertainties.” Elsewhere in Asia, the Bank of Japan is moving toward deciding to raise interest rates at its policy meeting this week, Kyodo News reported.
That supports recent speculation that the bank will hike by 25 basis points. The yen weakened slightly in early trading. Data from New Zealand on Wednesday showed annual inflation was unexpectedly steady in the final three months of last year, remaining above the midpoint of the central bank’s target band.
New Zealand’s dollar was little changed immediately after the release. Stocks Gain The S&P 500 rose 0.9%, and the Nasdaq 100 added 0.
6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.2%.
The Russell 2000 of small caps rallied 1.8%. A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps added 0.
3%. In late hours, Netflix Inc. reported its biggest quarterly subscriber gain in history, benefitting from its first major live sporting events and the return of Squid Game.
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