Asian shares held near 14-month highs on Friday as investors restored bets the Federal Reserve is settling into a phase of very gradual interest rate rises, while Japanese bond yields fell after the Bank of Japan’s radical new policy scheme.
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The Fed said the US job market has strengthened and economic activity has picked up but business investment is soft and inflation too low. Utilities and phone companies, which pay big dividends and are more attractive when interest rates are low, made substantial gains.
Bullion for immediate delivery was at $1,333.30 an ounce at 3:17 p.m.in Singapore from $1,335.17 a day earlier, when prices gained 1.6 percent for the biggest rise since September 6, according to Bloomberg generic pricing.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 163 points, or 0.9 percent, to 18,293.
The dollar index was down a bit at 95.388 .DXY , while the euro was up 0.1 percent against the dollar at $1.1215 EUR= .
Murphy Oil jumped $1.07, or 4 percent, to $27.58, Transocean rose 38 cents, or 4 percent, to $9.52. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.70 percent from 1.69 percent. Mylan edged up 26 cents to $41.52 Wednesday, but it’s down 14 percent since August 19. Energy companies are rising with the price of oil.
Benchmark US crude added 1.29 US dollars (£0.99), or 2.9%, to 45.34 dollars (£34.92) a barrel in NY.
Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as energy stocks rise along with the price of crude oil.
PULLED A RABBIT: Open source software company Red Hat rose $3.89, or 5 percent, to $80.86 after the company reported better than expected results in its second quarter. Copper, platinum and palladium each rose roughly 2 percent.
The major mover against the dollar, however, was the Norwegian crown, which rose more than 2 percent after Norway’s central bank left its main interest rate unchanged and suggested further rate cuts may not be needed because of a pickup in the economy.
The Fed, meanwhile, has forecast 1.8 per cent growth in 2016 and two per cent over the next two years.
Gold futures for December delivery advanced 1 per cent to settle at $US1344.70 an ounce at 1.50pm on the Comex in NY, after reaching $US1347.80, the highest since September 8.
Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.com, said: “The post-Fed relief only intensified Thursday morning, the European markets all extending their gains as the session went on”. The Hang Seng of Hong Kong gained 0.6% and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5%.
OVERSEAS: Germany’s DAX rose 0.5 percent and the FTSE 100 of Britain added 0.2 percent. The technology giant’s stock rose 59 cents, or 1 percent, to $57.40.
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The broader All Ordinaries index closed 32.1 points, or 0.59 per cent higher, at 5,429.4 points.
