Asian stocks follow Wall St up, silver eases off high

Asian stocks follow Wall St up, silver eases off high

SeattlePI.com

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BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher Tuesday after President Joe Biden invited Republicans to a meeting to discuss economic aid, while silver eased off an eight-year high.

Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul all advanced.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index gained 1.6%, recovering some of losses earlier in the week amid frenzied trading of video game retailer GameStop and other stocks targeted by novice day traders.

In Washington, Biden invited 10 moderate Republicans to the White House to discuss his proposed $1.9 trillion economic aid plan. Republicans earlier countered with an offer of $600 billion, or less than one-third of Biden's proposed amount.

“The sound of more stimulus, which tends to raise all boats, was music to the market’s ears,” said Stephen Innes of Axi in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6% to 3,527.15 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.9% to 28,334.59. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 1.5% to 29,318.49.

The Kospi in Seoul was 1.4% higher at 3,098.74 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 gained 1.5% to 6,762.60.

India's Sensex opened up 2% at 49,585.51. New Zealand retreated while Singapore and Bangkok rose. Jakarta was little-changed.

Silver declined after jumping at one point to its highest level in eight years. Silver for March delivery shed 55 cents, or 1.9%, to $28.86 per ounce in London.

Last week, messages on the Reddit forum WallStreet Bets and other places on social media encouraged small investors to buy silver. It shot up Monday, but many online investors said it wasn’t them bidding up the price.

Smaller traders are learning "the silver market is much bigger than some of the small cap stocks they have been trading,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report. “Silver...

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