While the US and Canada remain closed on account of national holidays, developments in the other half of the world, i.e., China, were uninspiring.
Advertisement
By 0822 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 2.5 percent to 1,262.59 points, while the Euro Stoxx 50 index was also up by a similar amount.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday met during the trading day with central bank governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who denied that the Tokyo market’s nosedive this week is a result of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) negative interest rate policy, but rather “excessive risk aversion” among global investors.
WALL STREET: Major U.S. benchmarks ended last week higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 2 percent to close Friday at 15,973.84. “The dollar may show a technical rebound against the yen from excessive response last week, but selling on recovery will likely predominate”. A barrel of benchmark NY crude is 4.9 percent higher at $27.48. Toyota and Nissan were both up more than 5.5%, Honda was up almost 5%, as were shares in Sharp and Sony.
The move is a show of financial strength to calm investor concerns over the bank’s health. Japanese banks have fallen 32.1% since the beginning of the year.
Jacob Frenkel, chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, told CBS News in Davos, Switzerland, that recent stock market free falls around the worl…
Wall Street was set to snap its losing streak. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 71.38 points, or 5.97 percent, to 1,267.66.
Dennis de Jong, managing director at UFX.com, says any positive figure is “a step in the right direction”.
European stock markets are posting big gains, buoyed by euphoria from the Japanese trading session.
JP Morgan Chase climbed $4.42, or 8.3 percent, to $57.49, while Citigroup added $2.56, or 7.3 percent, to $37.54.
Today’s surge is likely explained by bargain hunters looking at undervalued Japanese stocks after the huge sell-off last week which saw the index tumble more than 10%. Crude oil prices are moderately lower and most other commodities also seeing weakness.
Analysts said the yen could continue to weaken this year, which would be good for exporters. It dropped 78 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $30.06 on Thursday. The stock gained $1.71 to $17.22.
Official figures have confirmed that the 19-country eurozone’s economy grew 0.3 percent in the final quarter of 2015 compared with the previous three-month period. This 0.4 percent sequential contraction, reversed the 0.3 percent growth in the third quarter.
That relief was evident in the 7 percent spike in Japan’s main stock market. JPMorgan Chase climbed $2.34, or 4.4 percent, to $55.41, while Citigroup added $1.27, or 3.6 percent, to $36.25.
Advertisement
“It is hard to be sure these days given the extent of volatility present, but one of the catalysts for the better tone to financial markets on Friday appeared to have been some respectable economic data out of the U.S.”, Bloomberg reported Philip Borkin, senior economist in Auckland at ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd., as saying.
