NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Friday,
brushing off a late Wall Street dip as expectations of large
U.S. stimulus under President-elect Joe Biden shored up
sentiment while oil prices perked up on upbeat Chinese trade
figures.
President-elect Biden will unveil a $1.9 trillion stimulus
package proposal designed to jump-start the economy and speed up
the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on
Thursday. While U.S. stocks spent most of the trading session in
positive territory, helped by the stimulus hopes, some concerns
about the details of the package led to a modest decline towards
the end of Wall Street trade.
"The concern is what it's going to mean from a tax stand
point," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at
Inverness Counsel in New York.
"Spending is easy to do but the question is how are you
going to pay for it? Markets often ignore politics but they
don't often ignore taxes."
In Asia, investors held a broadly more optimistic with
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO up 0.2%, Japan's Nikkei 225
.N225 0.3% higher and South Korea's KOSPI .K11 inching up
0.2%.
Investors had also kept an eye on Federal Reserve Chair
Jerome Powell, who struck a dovish tone in comments at a virtual
symposium with Princeton University.
Powell said the U.S. central bank is not raising interest
rates anytime soon and rejected suggestions the Fed might start
reducing its bond purchases in the near term. "The Fed wants to talk down rates and it would be interesting
if it steps in to buy long-dated securities and if the bond
market breaks because of that," Ghriskey said.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
0.22%, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.38%, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 0.12%.
On Friday, earnings season will kick into full swing with
results from JPMorgan JPM.N , Citigroup C.N and Wells Fargo
WFC.N . Investors will be looking to see if banks are starting
to take down credit reserves, resume buybacks, and provide
guidance that shows the economy is improving, said Thomas Hayes,
chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.
"The markets want to see if they are showing confidence. If
the guidance is strong, it shows we can sustain this move,"
Hayes said.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Thursday, boosted by a weak
dollar and bullish signals from Chinese import data despite
renewed concerns about global oil demand due to surging
coronavirus cases in Europe and new lockdowns in China.
Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 rose 36 cents, or 0.6%, to
settle at $56.42 a barrel. U.S. crude CLc1 ended 66 cents, or
1.3%, higher at $53.57.
Treasury yields edged higher in anticipation of the new
stimulus package. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR
last fell 12/32 in price to yield 1.1292%, from 1.088% late on
Wednesday.
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