July 23: Asian markets rose Tuesday, tracking gains on Wall Street with confidence given a boost by a positive earnings season and speculation top US and Chinese negotiators will hold face-to-face trade talks soon.
A bipartisan agreement to raise the US debt ceiling to fund government for another two years — avoiding another painful shutdown — also provided some cheer.
The gains across the board come a week before the Federal Reserve holds its next policy meeting at which it is expected to cut interest rates, with a big question over how deep it will go.
While uncertainty remains over the outlook for the global economy, investors have been cheered by the earnings season so far as a number of reports have come in above forecasts, though analysts point out that expectations had been low.
Attention is now on the upcoming releases by tech titans including Amazon, Facebook and Google, with Boeing, Caterpillar, American Airlines and Coca-Cola also in line.
“Markets feel poised for some increased volatility,” Nick Twidale, director and co-founder of financial technology platform X-Chainge, said in a commentary.
“Traders will be looking to see how much trade issues have affected the bottom line of some of the big players, although news the talks between the two trading superpowers could resume next week should support underlying sentiment,” he added.
Tokyo ended the morning session 0.9 percent higher, while Hong Kong added 0.3 percent and Shanghai put on 0.2 percent. Sydney and Singapore each added 0.4 percent while Seoul gained 0.5 percent. Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta were also in positive territory.
AFP/APP
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