Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped by 0.8 percent.
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An upbeat assessment of the US economy’s strength from Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer on Sunday was viewed as raising the prospect of Fed Chair Janet Yellen flagging a rate rise at a meeting with world central bankers on Friday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index added 50.46 points or 0.64 percent to close at 7,981.21. London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.6 points at 6,821.
At 9:36am ET (1336 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 84.71 points, or 0.46%, at 18,467.86.
With the earnings season coming to an end, investor focus will shift to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday at the annual central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. On August 18, he said that a rate hike is “in play” in September’s policy meeting.
The historically low Federal funds rate, the central bank’s still-large balance sheet, and the US economy’s failure to fully recover from the last crisis all potentially dent the firepower of conventional monetary policy tools should a recession hit the USA economy in the coming years. “With markets pricing nearly even odds for another Fed hike this year, and given the retreat in the dollar and the rally in risky and emerging markets, this allows investors to once again ponder their portfolio exposure in the backdrop of subtle shifts in Fed messaging”.
WALL STREET: Energy companies fell as a rally in oil prices faded and investors sold safe assets they favored earlier.
Irish building materials group Kingspan also racked up healthy gains after reporting a jump in first-half profit and sales thanks to acquisitions and strong insulated panels sales. Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, said the firm’s trading model had called for a short-term trading top heading into last Friday’s option expiration, with the potential for further selling if the S&P 500 breaks below 2,175. They said Patel’s personal prominence also might help defuse concern the government was trying to reduce the bank’s independence.
Syngenta’s USA -listed shares jumped 11.3 percent after a US national security panel cleared ChemChina’s $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group. The state-owned company, known as ChemChina, said the $43 billion deal still requires approval from anti-trust regulators. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3 percent to 22,997.91 and Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.9 percent to 2,017.94. The euro declined to $1.1296 from $1.1325.
A week of talking up the U.S. dollar will be good for USA financial stocks that would benefit from a rate rise and some of that positivity could spread over into financials globally. The contract shed 1 cent on Friday to $49.11.
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“This morning’s action is predicated on the perception of what’s going to happen in Jackson Hole as well with the weakness in oil prices which have had an impressive run in recent weeks”, said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey. This week, the pair lost 1.1%, the 4th straight weekly weakening.
