BANGKOK– Shares rose in Asia on Monday, following last week’s gains on Wall Street, and analysts said investors were eyeing newly elected billionaire Donald Trump’s pick. Scott Bessent as his candidate for the office of Minister of Finance, as a relatively market-friendly choice.
Bitcoin fell slightly and oil prices also fell, while US futures advanced.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4% to 38,815.31, while Seoul’s Kospi rose 1.4% to 2,535.03. In Australia the S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 8,444.40.
In China, shares fell further, with the Shanghai Composite index losing 0.4% to 3,255.39 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.5% to 19,131.82.
The Chinese central bank has kept the interest rate on the one-year medium-term loan facility unchanged at 2%.
Shares of technology companies fell sharply, with online shopping platform Meituan down 4.3%, while multimedia and video games company Tencent fell 1.3%.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.4% and India’s Sensex rose 1.5%. In Bangkok, the SET gained 0.2%.
This week, business group The Conference Board will provide an update on consumer confidence on Tuesday, as well as key inflation data with the release on Wednesday of its October personal consumption expenditure index. The PCE is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure and this will be the final PCE reading before a Federal Reserve meeting next month.
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street on Friday after the market posted a fifth straight gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted another record high, gaining 1% to close at 44,296.51.
The S&The P500 rose 0.3% to 5,969.34, while the Nasdaq index rose 0.2% to 19,003.65. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%.
Markets have seen big swings since the US elections in November Trump’s The choices to lead the Ministry of Finance and other key positions that influence economic and financial policy were among the factors that dominated investor sentiment.
Bessent, 62, is a hedge fund manager with close ties to Wall Street. He is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, having worked for Soros Fund Management on and off since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary.
The proposed choice was interpreted “as a sign that President-elect Trump could take a more moderate approach to tariffs and fiscal policy. Bessent’s influence is expected to bring nuanced economic strategies to the fore, potentially easing concerns about abrupt policy shifts,” Stephen Innex of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
But he said attention this week would likely focus more on inflation data and what it could mean for interest rates as the Fed holds its next policy meeting.
A majority of the shares in the S&The P500 gained ground, but those gains were kept in check by the slumps of several major tech companies.
Nvidia fell 3.2%. Its pricey valuation makes it one of the biggest influences on whether the broader market gains or loses ground. The company has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth due to demand for its chips used in artificial intelligence technology.
Intuit, which makes TurboTax and other accounting software, fell 5.7%. It gave investors a quarterly profit forecast that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% following a Supreme Court decision to allow a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal surrounding the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
on the crypto market bitcoin hovered around $98,000, according to CoinDesk. It has more than doubled this year, surpassing the $99,000 level for the first time on Thursday.