AP – Global markets mostly rose yesterday after Wall Street rallied to its best day since June as pressures from the bond market relaxed a bit.
France’s CAC 40 added 0.9 per cent in early trading to 7,314.49. Germany’s DAX gained 0.8 per cent to 15,859.15. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 per cent to 7,349.46.
U.S. shares were set to trade mixed with Dow futures slipping less than 0.1 per cent to 34,510.00, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.6 per cent to 4,475.25.
Oil prices fell. Asian benchmarks rose.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9 per cent to finish at 32,287.21.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 per cent to 7,182.10.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.3 per cent to 2,537.68.
The Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board left the base rate unchanged at 3.50 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.1 per cent to 18,212.17, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.1 per cent to 3,082.24.
A major event of the week for markets is a speech later in the day by United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell.
He is speaking at a Jackson Hole, Wyoming, event that’s been the setting for major policy announcements by the Fed in the past.
The hope among traders has been that the Fed has already hiked rates for the final time this cycle and that it will begin cutting rates early next year. But such hopes have been diminishing with each stronger-than-expected report on the economy that’s come in recently.
