By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Stocks and gold paused for breath on Thursday at the end of the longest government shutdown on record, with markets turning to the resumption of U.S. economic data to gauge the rates outlook.
U.S. stock futures meandered from slightly negative to 0.2% firmer through the Asia session. Small gains for FTSE and European futures suggest further record highs could be in store for the cash indexes later in the day.
Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.3% but the broad Topix rose further to set an all-time high as investors shifted portfolios from the frothiest artificial intelligence firms to buy exposure to other parts of the economy. [.T]
Gold hung on to recent gains and traded above $4,200 while bonds were steady with the U.S.10-year yield at 4.09%.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who was expected to host Wall Street executives for dinner signed the bill to end the government’s shutdown in the Oval Office.
Delayed economic data will likely trickle out next week, economists expect, and the focus is on whether it will back up private surveys that have shown softness in the job market.
“One of the arguments now is with reopening, we should get a lot of data coming through that will give more clarity for (Federal Reserve Chair Jerome) Powell to say: ‘I’m cutting rates because of this,'” said Damian Rooney, director of institutional sales at Perth-based stockbroker Argonaut.
In the Aussie market volumes were a little light but there was a bid for lithium and gold miners, he said, as lower interest rates tend to drive buyers for gold. [.AX]
“It means these guys are making a lot of lolly in Aussie dollar terms. I think we’ve got a bit more legs there,” Rooney said. Most other sectors fell in Australia and the index was 0.5% lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated slightly from a one-month high and the Shanghai Composite rose 1% ahead of credit and retail sales data due later this week.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones index notched a record high overnight while the tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated. [.N]
In London the mining-heavy FTSE 100 closed at an all-time high. Bank stocks also pushed the pan-European STOXX 600 to record peaks while Italy’s FTSE MIB has hit its highest in almost a quarter of a century. [.L][.EU]
YEN SQUEEZED
Japan’s yen has come under renewed pressure as the country’s new premier has been pushing the central bank to go slow on rate rises. It hit a record low of 179.49 per euro and was near a nine-month trough on the dollar at 154.92.
The yen touched 155.05 against the dollar on Wednesday, prompting the finance minister to remind traders the government was watching closely in a prelude to possible intervention in the market.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda appeared before parliament on Thursday and said underlying inflation was gradually accelerating toward the bank’s target.
Elsewhere in foreign exchange trade the Australian dollar ticked higher after data showed a surge in employment in October, bolstering a view that the easing cycle there may have run its course.
The Aussie was up about 0.3% at $0.6558 and expectations of a cut in May dropped from nearly 70% to 32%.
Brent crude futures inched down to a three-week low of $62.34 a barrel after OPEC shifted its projection to forecast a small surplus to demand in the world oil market for 2026. [O/R]
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Sonali Paul and Shri Navaratnam)
