Asia shares peak of seven months and mood becomes cautious By Reuters



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© Reuters. PHOTO: Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) employees work on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks briefly swept the highs of the past seven months on Monday as investors welcomed the rebound in the US payroll and spoke of stimulus measures in China.

In a document released Sunday on the central government's website, Beijing announced plans to step up its targeted reduction of bank reserve requirement ratios to encourage small and medium-sized business financing.

The Chinese blue chips first climbed on a territory not visited since last March, and then lose 1% as the progress of the session. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares out of Japan remained steady after hitting its highest level since August.

Japan lost 0.1% after hitting its highest level of the year so far. E-Mini futures for the softened 0.2% and futures suggested a smooth start for major European stock exchanges.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S & P 500 had closed higher for its seventh consecutive day of trading last week, the longest streak of wins since October 2017. ()

However, a test comes as large US banks launch what analysts expect to be the first quarter of the contraction in corporate profits since 2016.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE 🙂 and Wells Fargo (NYSE 🙂 & Co will kick off Friday.

Before that, the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve should be released Wednesday.

"Markets will examine how flexible the FOMC has become," wrote TD Securities analysts in a note. "We are giving a very low, but not zero, chance to a discussion of interest rate reduction, while on the other hand, rate hikes are still on the horizon for the majority of policy makers. from the Fed. "

"The minutes will probably show the greatest transparency in terms of nervousness vis-à-vis the prospects."

WORK RELIEF

On Friday, the United States experienced tremendous relief when the US payroll report showed a sharp increase of 196,000 jobs in March, while annual wage growth slowed slightly to 3.2% .

"This data appeals to both downside and upside fears," said Alan Ruskin, Global Head of G10 Foreign Exchange Strategy. German Bank (DE 🙂 "Fears of weak growth are eased.In contrast, wage data do not suggest an additional acceleration that would threaten inflation."

"This suggests that the US economy remains reasonably robust and does not warrant any anticipation of rate cuts over the next six months, and to this extent will play a role in the contraction of US dollar declines relative to the US dollar. major currencies ".

The dollar drifted to 97.266 against a basket of currencies on Monday, squeezing out of the March high of 97.710, which marks a major resistance.

The dollar has shed some of its recent gains on the Japanese yen at 111.41, and again has to clear the 112.12 peak in March to trigger a real upward trend.

The euro was undermined by a series of gloomy data from Europe and sank at $ 1.1222, not far from its recent low of 20 months at $ 1.1774.

Sterling had its own problems at $ 1.3063 as time passed before Britain's departure from the European Union on April 12, with no agreement being reached.

Prime Minister Theresa May is to present a new plan to delay European leaders at Wednesday's summit.

In commodities markets, the fraction was firmed at $ 1,296.52 an ounce.

Oil prices hit their highest level since November 2018, driven by ongoing OPEC supply cuts and US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela. [O/R]

was up 28 cents to 63.36 dollars a barrel, while futures contracts rose 29 cents to 70.63 dollars.

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