Wall Street's three major indexes managed to close Tuesday's choppy session higher, marking quarterly and monthly gains, even as investors braced for a U.S. government shutdown, which would delay key economic reports and muddy the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy outlook. With investors having bet for some time on a spate of further Fed rate cuts, the benchmark S&P 500, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the Dow all gained for the second quarter in a row. For the S&P 500 and the Dow, it also marked their fifth straight monthly gain while the Nasdaq registered its sixth straight monthly...
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.4% to top 3,240, while the Shenzhen Component rose 0.7% to 10,250 on Friday (24/1), extending gains from the previous session as Beijing unveiled new measures to boost stock market investment. China's top financial regulator urged medium- and long-term funds, such as insurance, pension, national social security and annuity funds, to increase their equity investments. Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China kept the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility unchanged at 2% during its January decision. Chinese stocks have come under pressure...
Asia-Pacific markets rose on Friday, after the S&P 500 hit a record high on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump called for lower interest rates and cheaper oil. Japan's core inflation rate rose to a 16-month high of 3% in December, year-on-year, adding to the case for a rate hike from the Bank of Japan. The CPI announcement comes ahead of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting later in the day. Market watchers expect the central bank to raise interest rates to their lowest level in 17 years The country's benchmark Nikkei 225 index started the day up 0.31%. South Korea's...
Japanese stocks rose for a fifth day ahead of a likely interest-rate hike by the Bank of Japan with strength among domestic demand-related sectors such as services, retail, food, and construction. Nikkei advanced 0.3% to 40,069.59 as of 9:20 a.m. Tokyo time The Topix Index rose 0.2% to 2,758.10 Nintendo Co. contributed the most to the Topix Index gain, increasing 2.2%. Out of 2,119 stocks in the index, 1,367 rose and 545 fell, while 207 were unchanged. Stocks are being supported by expectations of lower crude oil prices, easing concerns about inflation globally,...
The S&P 500 rose to record highs once again on Thursday after President Donald Trump called for lower interest rates and cheaper oil prices. The broad market index added 0.5%, notching an all-time intraday high for the second straight session. The Dow Jones industrial Average advanced 408 points, 0.9%, on pace for its fourth straight winning day. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2%. Stocks took a modest leg up after Trump said Thursday in a virtual address to the World Economic Forum that he would "demand that interest rates drop immediately." The president also said he would ask Saudi...
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday continued to take aim at the European Union for what he claims is an unequal trade relationship. "From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly," Trump said in a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. After his inauguration on Monday, Trump's second term has been a key topic of conversation at Davos this year — particularly given his threats of trade tariffs on the EU, China, Mexico, Canada and beyond. Echoing previous comments, Trump said in his Davos address: "They make it very...