Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher as China begins major economic meeting
Stocks were largely higher in Asia on Monday as Chinese leaders began a major meeting expected to deliver new aid pledges for the world’s second-largest economy.
Oil prices then rose more than $1 per barrel OPEC+ oil producing countries said they would extend production cuts through the end of the year.
No reason was given for the move, which came before the US presidential elections on Tuesday.
U.S. benchmark crude gained $1.27 to $70.76 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.30 to $74.70 a barrel.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress meets this week and analysts predicted the government could approve major spending initiatives to stimulate the economy.
“Markets are abuzz with talk of a new stimulus package, driving expectations sky-high and creating a buzz that’s hard to ignore,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 20,540.44, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3% to 3,281.76.
The markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.
The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 8,134.60 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 1% to 2,568.85.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.3%.
On Friday, Amazon led US stock indexes higher, while a surprisingly weak jobs report marred by some unusual events Wall Street bets for another rate cut next week were cemented.
The S&The P500 rose 0.4% to 5,728.80, recovering some of the previous day’s loss, its worst in eight weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 42,052.19, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to 18,239.92.
Amazon climbed 6.2% after posting a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected and was the strongest force behind the S&P500 higher.
Intel, meanwhile, rose 7.8% despite a bigger-than-expected loss. Revenue exceeded analyst expectations, and the company provided guidance for current-quarter results that also exceeded expectations. Cardinal Health was also one of the market’s bigger winners, rising 7% after beating analysts’ earnings and revenue expectations in the latest quarter. It also raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year, which is only in the second quarter.
They helped offset a 1.2% decline Applethat said it expects sales growth in the key holiday quarter to be in the low to mid-single digits. That was lower than several analysts’ expectations.
Treasury yields rose after a long-awaited report said U.S. employers added just 12,000 workers to their payrolls last month, far fewer than the 115,000 economists expected or the 223,00 jobs employers created in September.
U.S. manufacturing shrank more than economists expected last month, according to a separate report. It is one of the sectors of the economy most affected by the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at their highest level in 20 years until September.
The almost unanimous expectation on Wall Street remains that the Fed will cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point next week.
Two-year Treasury yields, which closely track expectations for Fed actions, initially fell after the jobs report but then rose to 4.20% from 4.18% late Thursday.
Ten-year government bond yields, which also take into account future economic growth and other factors, also rose after a sudden decline. It rose to 4.37%, up from 4.29% late Thursday.
The hope on Wall Street is that the economy will still avoid a recession even with the slowdown in the labor market, thanks in part to upcoming Fed rate cuts. The overall economy has remained so far more resilient than feared.
In currency transactions early Monday, the dollar fell to 152.05 Japanese yen, down from 152.42 yen late Friday. The euro fell from $1.0881 to $1.0879.