ASIA-PAC EQUITY UPDATE: APAC stocks pick up despite a weak Wall Street lead

Analysis details (02:30)

APAC stocks trade mostly firmer as sentiment picked up following the negative handover from Wall Street, which saw a slew of Fed speakers – with Fed’s Bullard (voter) maintaining his hawkish views talking about restrictive territory at 5.00-5.25% and even the "dovish" assumptions about the state of monetary policy warrant further rate increases noting they are not in restrictive territory yet which saw the yield curve bear flatten. US equity futures resumed trade with modest gains with the ES and NQ still under 4k and 12k respectively, whilst European equity futures see gains to a slightly greater magnitude, with the Euro Stoxx 50 testing 3,900 to the upside at the time of writing. ASX 200 (+0.4%) is lifted by gains in its heavy-weight financials sector, whilst Oz Minerals resides as one of the winners following a sweetened takeover deal by BHP. Nikkei 225 (+0.3%) climbed back above 28,000 with BoJ Governor Kuroda reiterating the need for easy monetary policy, whilst Nissan shares failed to benefit from General Motors’ guidance upgrade. KOSPI (+1.0%) outperforms despite reports of North Korea launching a suspected ICBM eastward following yesterday’s short-range missile launch. Hang Seng (+0.8%) and Shanghai Comp (Unch.) are mixed with the former boosted by shares in Alibaba rising some 6% post-earnings.

18 Nov 2022 - 02:30- Fixed IncomeEconomic Commentary- Source: Newsquawk