Asian shares higher as earnings lift Wall Street
Asian stocks markets were mostly higher Tuesday, fortified by Wall Street’s growing optimism over U.S. corporate earnings and hopes for encouraging economic data in China.
China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is due to report its second quarter GDP on Wednesday. Premier Li Keqiang raised hopes for an upbeat outcome by commenting last week that growth improved from 7.4 percent in the first quarter.
Regional markets are also clawing back losses sustained last week due to jitters about Portuguese bank Espirito Santo International after it reportedly missed a debt payment.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.8 percent to 15,413.75. A central bank policy meeting ended Tuesday with no changes to Tokyo’s ultra-loose monetary policy.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5 percent to 23,462.24 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8 percent to 2,010.70.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2 percent to 5,501.80, pulled lower by a drop in gold prices and weakness in banks and manufacturing companies.
U.S. shares rose Monday, driven by corporate deal news and strong earnings for Citigroup.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.7 percent to 17,055.42 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.5 percent to 1,977.10.
“While it’s still early on in the earnings season, results so far have been encouraging. This is reassuring investors, especially as valuations are full and expectations are high,” CMC Markets trader William Leys said in a commentary.
Apart from Japan’s central bank meeting, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was due to testify before a congressional committee this week.
The expectation she will stick to a stance of keeping interest rates low for the time being is helping support shares despite the Fed’s plans to gradually scale back its asset purchases.
Benchmark U.S. crude for August delivery was up 8 cents to $100.99 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract slipped 8 cents to close at $100.91 on Monday on expectations of higher supplies and muted global demand.
In currency markets, the dollar rose to 101.59 yen from 101.57 yen late Monday. The euro fell to $1.3617 from $1.3623.
Source: AP
