SYDNEY / NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian stocks hovered near four-month highs on Thursday in hopes of a vaccine for COVID-19, while copper prices jumped to a more than six-month spike due to a better global perspective and supply fears in the main producer Chile.
FILE PHOTO: An SGX sign is displayed on the Singapore Stock Exchange on July 19, 2017. REUTERS / Edgar Su
All eyes are on the US employment data, which is expected later in the day, which is expected to offer more clues as to how the world’s largest economy is dealing with an increase in coronavirus cases. in various states.
In a sign, the positive sentiment will spread elsewhere, E-minis for S & P500 were up 0.3% while futures for Euro Stoxx 50 were up 0.8% and those for the German DAX were up 0.8%. London FTSE futures added 0.6%.
Risk sentiment was stimulated by a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech of Germany, which was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials.[.N]
A vaccine against COVID-19 was long anticipated, killing more than half a million people worldwide and shutting down the world economy.
“Based on a vaccine trial containing 45 people, including placebos, the V-shaped recovery gnomes once again reach the sky,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior Asia Pacific market analyst at OANDA.
MSCI’s broader index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan rose 1.5% to levels close to the beginning of March.
All major Asian indices were bullish on Japan’s Nikkei rising 0.1%, China’s blue chip index adding 1.7% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.8%.
Employment figures in the United States will help indicate whether the world’s largest economy can sustain its fragile recovery as new cases of COVID-19 accelerate in several southern states.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expect private employers to show 2.9 million new jobs in June, which would follow a surprising increase in May. However, casting some doubt on that projection was less than expected job growth in the ADP report on Wednesday.
“A better-than-expected result could help resolve the short-term debate that the US job market will recover relatively quickly and justify new highs in US equities,” said Stephen Innes, strategist at AxiCorp.
Wall Street ended higher on Wednesday after key economic indicators showed a rebound in Chinese manufacturing activity as it recovers from the pandemic, while sharp declines in European manufacturing activity slowed.
Equity investors ignored concerns over Hong Kong, where police arrested more than 300 people protesting new laws enacted by China to eliminate dissent.
Those events have raised concerns about China’s already strained relations with its main western trading partners, particularly the United States.
In commodities, August’s most heavily traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange touched 49,570 yuan ($ 7,016.28) per ton, its highest level since Dec. 30, 2019.
Manufacturing activity rebounded in the United States in June, while the manufacturing sector in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, contracted at a slower rate and the largest copper consumer, China, released better-than-expected manufacturing data. expected.
Meanwhile, in Chile, where the number of COVID-19 cases has increased, miner BHP said it would begin to decrease production at its small Cerro Colorado copper mine in the country.
Elsewhere, oil prices rose and gold fell, while the dollar held steady as encouraging macro data led investors to take more risks.[O/R][GOL/]
Brent crude rose 17 cents to $ 42.20 a barrel. US crude rose 14 cents to $ 39.96 a barrel. Gold futures in the United States were 0.21% lower, at $ 1,776.20.
The safe-haven dollar did not change against the Japanese yen at 107.45. The euro was slightly higher at $ 1.1267 while the pound sterling was slightly firmer at $ 1.2497.
The risk sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollar were 0.2% and 0.4% stronger respectively.
That left the dollar index at 97,044.
Sam Holmes and Lincoln Feast edition.
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