NEW YORK, 28 Dec. (Reuters) – Asian stocks jumped on Tuesday, with Japanese stocks reaching a 29-year high in hopes of a long-awaited US pandemic relief package and a Brexit trade deal supporting investors’ risk appetite.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 0.9% to its highest level since March 1991, while Australian equities rose 0.7% and S&P 500 futures added 0.3%.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted earlier to increase incentive payments to qualified Americans to $ 2,000 from $ 600, sending the Senate measure to the vote.
Although it is unclear how the move will go in the Senate, President Donald Trump’s signing of a $ 2.3 trillion pandemic bill on Sunday, which included $ 600 payments, sent shares on Wall Street to record highs overnight. because it has increased optimism about a recovering economy.
“With Brexit … and with the US stimulus agreement now in the rearview mirror, there is a sense of relief that we have avoided the most unfavorable scenarios,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, an agent.
Firmer demand for riskier assets has kept the US dollar, which is often seen as a “safe haven” asset, on its back foot. It decreased by 0.02% compared to a basket of major currencies.
The shortening of the dollar has recently been a popular transaction, and Reuters calculations based on data released Monday by the Commission for Futures Trading of Goods have suggested that this could hold up. Short positions in the dollar swelled in the week ended December 21 to $ 26.6 billion, the highest in three months.
The pound fell to $ 1.3462 as investors continued to make profits in foreign currency after last week’s confirmation of a long-awaited UK-EU trade deal.
A slow dollar supported gold prices, which rose 0.4% to $ 1,878.76 an ounce.
Oil prices have recovered after falling overnight due to concerns that new travel restrictions behind the COVID-19 pandemic would weaken fuel demand and, as the prospect of rising supply has lingered on prices.
American crude rose 0.48% to $ 47.85 a barrel.
Koh Gui Qing’s report; Mountain by Sam Holmes