Asian stock markets benefit from the Wall Street effect, which is in turn driven by the Jerome Powell effect.
in a speech to the Brookings Institution, the Fed’s number one said what the markets were hoping for, speaking of the possibility that the US central bank will raise rates less than it has done so far, starting from the December meeting of the FOMC. on the calendar for the next 13 and 14 December. The Wall Street rally was immediate and ‘infected’ the Asian stock markets.
Yesterday, the S&P 500 index gained 122 points, +3.1% to 4,084, positioning itself above the 200-day moving average for the first time since last April. The Nasdaq flew by 4.4%, to 11,468 points, while the Dow Jones jumped by more than 700 points (+2.18%), to 34,589.77. Although the trend in US futures in pre-market calls for some caution, the Nikkei 225 of the Tokyo stock exchange closed solidly higher, as did other Asian exchanges.
The index rose 0.92%. The Shanghai stock exchange also advanced +0.53%, Hong Kong +1.54%, the Seoul stock exchange, weaker with a rise of 0.36% and Sidney, solid with a leap of 0.90%.
If comforting news has come from Jerome Powell’s Fed, the same cannot be said of the news from the macroeconomic front of China, Japan, partly from Australia and also from South Korea.
China’s manufacturing PMI compiled by Caixin-Markit, although better than expected and up from the previous 49.2 points, at 49.4, confirmed the fourth consecutive month of contraction in November.
Japan’s manufacturing PMI surveyed by S&P Global also contracted, falling to 49 points in November, compared to 50.7 points in October, and therefore slipped into the contraction phase, as it is below 50 points.
Australia’s manufacturing PMI compiled by Markit and S&P Global slowed down to 51.3 points in November from 52.7 in October. However, the index remained in an expansion phase, as it exceeded 50 points; That said, Australia’s other manufacturing PMI, known as the Australian Industry Group Performance of Manufacturing Index, fell further in contraction, to 44.7 points from 49.6 in October.
South Korea’s exports also collapsed, with a year-on-year plunge of 14%, worse than the -11% expected and after the 5.7% decline in October.