Asian markets higher after Wall St rises on better US data
Most Asian stock markets rose Thursday after Wall Street gained on surveys showing better U.S. jobs and manufacturing conditions than expected.
Tokyo, Sydney and Southeast Asia advanced while Shanghai declined. Hong Kong recovered from early losses and was unchanged at midday.
Stock markets have risen on optimism about a possible global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as more economies reopen despite rising case numbers in the United States, Brazil and other countries.
Wall Street turned in its fourth straight gain after surveys Wednesday showed employers cut fewer jobs than forecast last month and a U.S. manufacturing downturn eased slightly.
“The not too bad news keeps coming, enabling the hopes for economic rebound alongside the reopening,” said Jingyi Pan of IG in a report.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.4% to 22,695.74 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.8% to 5,989.60.
The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.1% to 2,920.33. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was unchanged at 24,334.41.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.1% to 2,149.10 and India's Sensex dropped 0.5% to 33,928.54. New Zealand, Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok advanced.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.4% on Wednesday to 3,122.87. The index has gained nearly 40% since late March.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2% to 26,269.89. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.8% to 9.682.91.
A survey from payroll processor ADP said that private employers cut nearly 2.8 million jobs last month, but that was much milder than the 9.3 million that economists told investors to expect. That raises optimism that Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report from the U.S. government may also not be as bad as feared. Economists say it may show a loss of 8 million jobs, which would be a deceleration from April’s loss of 20.5...
