Asian stocks at record highs as Biden inauguration raises stimulus hopes By Reuters

By Andrew Galbraith and Jessica DiNapoli

SHANGHAI / NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian stocks hit new records on Thursday, following U.S. markets as investors hoped for more economic stimulus from new U.S. President Joe Biden to offset damage from the COVID pandemic- 19.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress have indicated they are ready to work with the new president on his administration’s top priority, a $ 1.9 trillion U.S. fiscal stimulus package, but some are opposed to the price of the plan. Democrats took control of the US Senate on Wednesday, but will still need Republican support to push through the program.

But after the record-breaking Wall Street close overnight, Asian markets reflected relief from an orderly transition of power and strong expectations that US stimulus measures will provide continued support to global assets.

Kay Van-Petersen, macro-global strategist at Saxo Capital Markets, said democratic scrutiny by the Senate “not only increases the likelihood of a tax increase (stimulus), but also the magnitude.”

“This means that this market should be much higher overall and we are going to get there. We are entering this regime of even more accelerated asset class inflation,” he said.

The MSCI’s largest Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan hit record highs and was last up 0.85% as markets in the region posted gains.

Chinese blue chips added 1.2%, Australian stocks climbed 0.69%, and Hong Kong stocks broke the 30,000 mark, up 0.31%.

was up 0.72%, less than 1% from three-decade highs reached last week.

Hikes in Asia followed new records on Wall Street overnight. The increase of 0.83%, the increase of 1.39% and the increase of 1.97%. S&P 500 e-mini futures on Thursday hit new highs and last rose 0.26%

“The market remains optimistic about tighter regulatory / tax risks given the slim Senate majority, while still expecting additional fiscal stimulus,” said Tapas Strickland, economist at National Australia Bank (OTC :), in a note.

Tech stocks stood out after Netflix Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 said it would no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to fund its TV shows and movies, which caused its stocks to rise by almost 17%.

With Netflix, the rest of the FAANG group, which were due to release their results in the coming weeks, jumped out. Google Parent Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc grew 5.36%.

As stock market gauges rose, US stimulus hopes weighed on the greenback, pushing the decline 0.1% to 90.319.

The dollar was stable against the yen at 103.52 and the euro gained 0.2% on the day to $ 1.2124.

The US benchmark was down 1.0836%, down slightly from the US close of 1.09% on Wednesday.

In the commodities markets, oil prices eased following an unexpected rise in stocks. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.56% to $ 53.01 a barrel. fell 0.4% to $ 55.85 a barrel.

was stable at $ 1,871 per ounce. [GOL/]

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