Asian Markets Trade Mostly Higher

Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement and the Chinese government’s pledge to come up with more economic stimulus. Optimism about a potential diplomatic solution to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine also generated buying interest. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an address to the nation that the positions in the negotiations were beginning to “sound more realistic.”

The U.S. Fed announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates for the first time since December of 2018 in an effort to combat inflation at 40-year highs. The Fed raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 0.25 to 0.5 percent.

The central bank also predicted ongoing rate hikes will be appropriate, with the Fed’s latest projections pointing to an interest rate of 1.9 percent by the end of the year, with up to six additional rate hikes this year.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England unveils its policy decision on Thursday, with the Bank of Japan following a day later.

The Australian stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving just below the 7,300 level, following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, aided by gains from materials, financial and technology stocks after the U.S. Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate to tame the worst inflation since the early 1980s. Traders are also tracking developments around the COVID situation in China.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 94.60 points or 1.32 percent 7,269.80, after touching a high of 7,296.8 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 104.90 points or 1.41 percent to 7,540.70. Australian markets ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, Rio Tinto is adding almost 2 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing almost 3 percent, OZ Minerals is up more than 3 percent and Fortescue Metals is rising more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mixed. Santos is losing almost 1 percent and Woodside Petroleum is slipping more than 1 percent, while Origin Energy is edging up 0.5 percent and Beach Energy is gaining more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent, while National Australia Bank is adding more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking advancing almost 2 percent.

In the tech space, Appen and WiseTech Global are surging almost 6 percent each, while Block is soaring more than 11 percent, Zip is rising almost 10 percent and Xero is adding almost 3 percent.

Gold miners are mostly lower. Northern Star Resources is edging down 0.5 percent, Newcrest Mining is losing more than 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is declining almost 2 percent, while Resolute Mining is up 1.5 percent and Evolution Mining is adding almost 1 percent.

In economic news, the jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 4.0 percent in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That was below expectations for 4.1 percent and down from 4.2 percent in January. The Australian economy added 77,400 jobs last month, blowing away forecasts for an increase of 37,000 jobs following the gain of 12,900 jobs in the previous month. The participation rate came in at 66.4 percent, exceeding expectations for 66.3 percent and up from 66.2 percent a month earlier.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.732 on Thursday.

The Japanese stock market is sharply higher on Thursday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 up more than 750 points to move above the 26,500 level, following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, aided by a spike in across all sectors, after the U.S. Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate to tame the worst inflation since the early 1980s. Traders also remain optimistic amid the ongoing talks to diffuse.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 26,529.89, up 767.88 points or 2.98 percent, after touching a high of 26,702.94 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is surging almost 7 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding almost 6 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is advancing 1.5 percent and Honda is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding almost 4 percent and Screen Holdings are surging more than 5 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are adding almost 2 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is up almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are higher. Sony is gaining almost 4 percent, Mitsubishi Electric is advancing more than 3 percent and Panasonic is adding almost 2 percent, while Canon is edging down 0.3 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Omron is soaring almost 8 percent, while Toto and Yaskawa Electric are surging more than 7 percent each. Recruit Holdings and Olympus are gaining almost 7 percent each, while TDK, Japan Steel Works, Shiseido and Daikin Industries are adding more than 6 percent each. Fanuc, Taiyo Yuden and OKUMA are up almost 6 percent.

Conversely, East Japan Railway is losing almost 3 percent.

In economic news, the value of core machine orders in Japan was up 5.1 percent on year in January, the Cabinet Office said on Thursday – coming in at 899.6 billion yen. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 8.1 percent but was unchanged from December’s annual reading. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, core machine orders were down 2.0 percent – beating forecasts for a decline of 2.2 percent after slipping 3.6 percent in December. For the first quarter of 2022, core machine orders are forecast to fall 0.5 percent on quarter but rise 8.3 percent on year.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 118 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong is soaring 4.7 percent, Taiwan is surging 2.6 percent, while China and South Korea are gaining 1.7 percent each. New Zealand is up 1.4 percent, while Singapore and Malaysia is up 0.9 and 1.0 percent, respectively. Indonesia is up 0.1 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility following the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement after showing a strong move to the upside in early trading on Wednesday. The major averages initially pulled back sharply in reaction to the Fed announcement but rallied strongly going into the close.

The major averages finished the session at their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 518.76 points or 1.6 percent to 34,063.10, the Nasdaq soared 487.93 points or 3.8 percent to 13,436.55 and the S&P 500 surged 95.41 points or 2.2 percent at 4,357.86.

The major European markets also showed substantial moves to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 1.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index surged by 3.7 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices dropped Wednesday, extending losses to a third straight session after data showed a surprise surge in U.S. crude inventories, and amid hopes of some progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $1.40 or 1.5 percent at $95.04 a barrel.