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BEIJING (AP) – Asian stock markets rose for the second day on Tuesday on hopes of progress towards a possible coronavirus vaccine that could allow the world to jumpstart manufacturing, buying and a normal life.
Benchmarks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney rose more than 1% while Shanghai and Seoul also rose.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 closed up 1.2% on Monday after Pfizer Inc. said early data on a vaccine in development suggested it could be 90% effective for prevent COVID-19, although that doesn’t mean its release is imminent.
“This offers a silver lining that the market has not hesitated to take advantage of,” Tai Hui of JP Morgan Asset Management said in a report.
Also on Tuesday, China announced that October inflation had fallen to its lowest level in a decade. This gives Beijing the opportunity to spend more and further facilitate access to credit so necessary to support a strengthening economic recovery.
The Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to 25,108.21 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.1% to 26,299.06. The Shanghai Composite Index gained less than 0.1% to 3,375.42.
Sydney’s S & P-ASX 200 rose 1.2% to 6,375.60. The Kospi in Seoul was down 0.2% to 2,443.86. New Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta also advanced.
Markets were also relieved by the resolution of prolonged uncertainty over the battle for the US presidency. Over the weekend, Democrat Joe Biden won the final electoral college votes to oust President Donald Trump, though Trump has yet to concede.
Congress can be divided between Democratic control in the House of Representatives and Republicans in the Senate. Investors seem encouraged by this, which they hope will limit any action the Biden administration takes on tax hikes and regulatory changes.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 3,550.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 2.9% to 29,157.97.
Pfizer rose 7.7% after indicating that the company and its German partner, BioNTech, were on track to file an emergency request for the use of their vaccine with US regulators.
Chevron rose 11.6% and The Walt Disney Co. gained 11.9% on the expectation that people could drive more and visit theme parks again.
Big tech companies have declined. They had risen during the pandemic in the hope that they would prosper whether workers and consumers were staying at home or not. Apple Inc. fell 2% and Microsoft Corp. lost 2.4%. Zoom Video Communications, whose online meetings allow millions of students and remote workers to communicate, fell 17.4%.
The Nasdaq composite, dominated by tech stocks, lost 1.5% to 11,713.78.
The impact of Pfizer’s vaccine announcement highlighted the economic dominance of the virus, temporarily overshadowing concerns over who controls the U.S. government. The number of confirmed U.S. virus cases topped 10 million on Monday, the highest total in the world.
The potential legislative deadlock also makes the chances of a bailout for the economy of Congress weaker than if Democrats had swept control of all of Washington.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude oil lost 39 cents to $ 39.90 per barrel on electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed from $ 3.15 Monday to $ 40.29. Brent, the price standard for international oils, fell 27 cents to $ 42.13 a barrel in London. It increased from $ 2.95 the previous session to $ 42.40.
The dollar fell to 104.84 yen from 105.45 yen on Monday. The euro was little changed at $ 1.1830.
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