Asian stocks were set for gains on Friday although trade was likely to be choppy after a mixed Wall Street session with investor focus swinging between concerns about a second pandemic wave and more upbeat hopes about an economic recovery.
TOKYO/WASHINGTON: Asian shares and U.S. stock futures teetered in choppy trade on Friday as lingering concerns about an fresh spike in coronavirus cases offset growing hopes for a quick economic recovery.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1per cent. U.S. S&P 500 e-minis moved in and out of the red, and were last up 0.21per cent.
Shares in China rose 1.15per cent, led by gains in financials and the health care sector, but South Korean stocks fell 0.25per cent due to concern about diplomatic tension with North Korea.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 erased gains to trade 0.08per cent lower, unsettled by a major cyberattack on all levels of Australian’s government.
Oil futures rose in Asia on hopes that output cuts will put a floor under prices.
Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.03per cent, German DAX futures edged up 0.04per cent, while FTSE futures gained 0.19per cent in cautious trade.
On the whole, markets have been sideswiped this week on fresh contagion concerns, prompting some investors to temper their optimism about how quickly the global economy can recover for the pandemic.
On Thursday around 400 workers at a slaughterhouse in northern Germany tested positive for the virus. At the same time, investors are nervously following a cluster of cases in Beijing and rising cases in several U.S. states.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were range-bound and oscillated through much of the day as investors struggled to interpret the impact of U.S. employment data without any guidance from corporations on their earnings.
Data on Thursday showed the number of U.S. unemployed remains stubbornly high amid signs of a second wave of corporate layoffs as companies grappled with large declines in revenue because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“The market is looking for its next big impulse,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
“There are a lot of impulses in the market for investors to weigh, sift through and take into account to figure out the next direction.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.15per cent on Thursday, but the S&P 500 added 0.06per cent.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.33per cent after spending much of the session lower.
Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said it could take a year or two for the U.S. economy to return to pre-pandemic levels, with gross domestic product declining by 6per cent in 2020 and the unemployment rate still around 9per cent by year’s end.
Oil futures extended gains from the previous session after OPEC producers and allies promised to meet their supply cut commitments and two major oil traders said demand is recovering.
U.S. crude ticked up 0.9per cent to US$39.19 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 0.87per cent to US$41.87 per barrel.
In foreign exchange markets, the dollar headed for its best week in a month against a basket of major currencies as a resurgence in coronavirus cases knocked confidence in a rapid economic recovery and drove investors to the safety of the world’s reserve currency.
The British pound was mired near a two-week low at US$1.2403 due to concerns that the Bank of England’s bond purchases may not be enough to support an economic revival.
Sterling could stage a mild recovery if retail sales data due later on Friday point to a rebound in consumer spending.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes edged up to 0.7019per cent, but further gains could be capped due to worries about the U.S. labour market.
(Reporting by Stanley White in Tokyo and Katanga Johnson in Washington; Editing by Sam Holmes & Shri Navaratnam)