USA stocks were also supported by the Bank of Japan’s surprise decision to adopt a “yield curve control” under which it will buy long-term government bonds to keep 10-year bond yields at current levels around zero percent. Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.9 percent to 2,017.94, Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.4 percent to 5,497.40 and India’s Sensex rose 0.8 percent to 28,735.71. The benchmark S&P 500 Index rose 0.6 percent, led by a almost 2 percent gain in the real estate sector.
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Kerry Group fell 0.6 per cent to €74.48, while the Green Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) advanced 0.75 per cent to €1.49.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that US growth was looking stronger and rate increases would be needed to keep the economy from overheating and fueling high inflation.
However, with interest rates already creeping higher – and the prospect of a Fed rate hike later this year very much in play – it may be time to seek out sectors that stand to benefit. Economic growth, meanwhile, is expected to remain a far-from-roaring 1.8 percent for the year.
Yahoo was down 1.6% at US$43.44, a day after the company said at least 500 million of its accounts were hacked in 2014 in a theft that appeared to be the world’s biggest known cyber breach.
Commodities were mostly higher, with the November crude oil contract up 98 cents at US$46.32 per barrel, December gold contracts increasing by US$13.30 at US$1,344.70 per ounce and the December contract for copper rising four cents to $2.19 a pound.
Brent crude futures rose 1.9% to $47.73 a barrel, while United States oil futures jumped 2.5% to $46.46.
Mixed economic data also helped underpin the stock market. Freeport-McMoRan, the mining giant, jumped 36 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $10.90.
Gold is likely to see profit-taking in Asia, given the higher prices and decent regional buying in the range of $1,310 to $1,320 last week and early this week, said Alex Thorndike, senior precious metals dealer, MKS PAMP Group.
Technology stocks advanced. Shares in Amazon rose 1.9 per cent to $804.86, after hitting a record following a price target raise by BMO. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent to 5,404.50.
TAKE A PICTURE: Shares of GoPro, the activewear camera company, rose $1.38, or 9 percent, to $16.35 after the company announced updates to its Hero camera products.
The other was a set of numbers: tables containing Fed officials’ projections for how fast the US economy, and its inflation rate, will grow in the coming months and years.
But raising rates looks like a matter of when, and not if – 10 of the 17 Fed officials expect to raise rates by a one-quarter percentage point this year.
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“The US dollar decline has more weeks to go, we think about two months”, Hans Redeker, Morgan Stanley’s chief global currency strategist in London, told Bloomberg.
