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Global Shares Higher on Monday 03/01 05:28
Global shares rose Monday, lifted by hopes President Joe Biden's stimulus
package will be enacted and by bargain-hunting after sell offs last week.
TOKYO (AP) -- Global shares rose Monday, lifted by hopes President Joe
Biden's stimulus package will be enacted and by bargain-hunting after sell offs
last week.
France's CAC 40 added 1.5% in early trading to 5,788.93, while Germany's DAX
edged up 1.3% to 13,964.06. Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 1.6% to 6,590.00. U.S.
shares were set for gains. with the future for the Dow industrials at
31,249.50, up 1.1%. The S&P 500 future was up 1.2% at 3,854.38.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.4% to finish at 29,663.50. Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.7% to 6,789.60.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.6% to 29,452.57, while the Shanghai
Composite rose 1.2% to 3,551.40, despite a survey showing slightly weaker
manufacturing indicators for the month of February.
South Korean markets were closed for a national holiday. But the government
reported that exports rose 9.5% in February from a year earlier and imports
jumped nearly 14%, in signs the economy is picking up momentum.
A manufacturing survey for Japan showed an expansion in February for the
first time since April 2019. The au Jibun purchasing managers index reading of
51.4 --- on a scale of 1-100, where 50 and above show expansion --- was a sharp
improvement from the 49.8 level registered in January.
The survey showed improvements in many areas including higher sales and
orders and higher exports, reflecting improved demand in overseas markets,
especially China.
Asia's export-reliant economies are counting on a healthy American economy
to boost trade, which has tended to stagnate during the pandemic. As the
region's recovery begins to take off, vaccine rollouts are also gradually
getting started in most Asian nations.
Worries about the economy, as well as about COVID-19, are still relatively
widespread in Japan, which is seeing yet another wave of coronavirus cases.
Some urban areas, like Osaka, have lifted measures to help prevent the spread
of infections, but the Tokyo area remains under a "state of emergency," focused
on having restaurants, bars and other businesses close at 8 p.m. Japan has
never had a lockdown.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic
relief bill on Friday and it now goes to the Senate for approval. The bill
infuses cash across the struggling economy to individuals, businesses, schools,
states and cities battered by COVID-19.
The U.S. stimulus bill would include yet another round of one-time payments
to most Americans, including an expansion of other refundable tax credits like
the child tax credit, and additional aid to state and local governments to
combat the pandemic.
"It is still fundamentally good news that the sell-offs' economic
underpinnings --- increasing mobility, inflation, and US stimulus --- are still
intact, with global vaccinations rolling out faster than expected," said
Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained $1.12 to $62.62 a barrel in
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $2.03 on Friday
to $61.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.18 to
$65.60 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched up to 106.62 Japanese yen from
106.56 yen. The euro cost $1.2068, down from $1.2074.
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