Markets Live, Thursday, September 2, 2021
Asian stocks appear poised for a stable open on Thursday after big US tech stocks rose on a defensive tilt in the face of Wall Street’s rally. The US dollar fell to a low of about three weeks.
Futures rose in Japan and Hong Kong, but fell in Australia.
The high-tech Nasdaq 100 rose to a record, while the S&P 500 saw little change amid mixed data suggesting a slower job market recovery. Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. plunged into protracted operations at the risk of a second antitrust lawsuit. US stock contracts fluctuated.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields fell below 1.3 percent.
Wall Street improved overnight. Credit:AP
Traders await key U.S. employment data on Friday to get more clues about the economic outlook and the likely timeline for a reduction in pandemic-era stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
Chinese tech stocks listed in the US extended their rally amid bets that the worst of Beijing’s regulatory crackdown could be over.
Separately, China’s central bank will provide 300 billion yuan ($ 46.4 billion) of low-cost financing to support small and medium-sized enterprises. Officials recently signaled plans to selectively relax monetary policy to dampen the economy.
Investors are trying to assess when the outbreak of the delta variant virus could peak, as well as the implications of reduced support for central bank policies in the coming months.
Global stocks are at record levels and indicators of implied volatility in the financial market are declining, suggesting that investors remain confident of recovery from the health crisis.
While some are becoming cautious about what might happen to US stocks this month, Wall Street is mostly “still very optimistic,” Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note.
That is due to liquidity levels, the upcoming infrastructure stimulus and hopes for further reopening momentum, as rising delta stress may be peaking, he said.
The latest data from the ADP Research Institute showed that American companies added fewer jobs than expected in August. Manufacturing expanded faster than expected, but faced supply problems and labor restrictions.
Elsewhere, oil held steady after a relatively harmonious decision by OPEC + to gradually increase supply and an upbeat report on the US oil inventory.
Bloomberg
