Asian shares advance, with Japan’s benchmark surging after ruling party forms new coalition
BANGKOK AP Asian markets surged Monday after Wall Street finished a winning week overcoming worries over bank lending and the pact war with China U S futures edged higher while oil prices fell Japan s benchmark Nikkei jumped to setting a new record after its governing Liberal Democrats exposed a new coalition partner securing sponsorship for its leader Sanae Takaichi to become the country s first female prime minister Takaichi is expected to push for market-supporting policies such as low interest rates and higher authorities spending China communicated its economic system grew at a annual pace in the last quarter supported by relatively strong exports as companies increased shipments markets other than the U S Still it was the slowest pace in a year The world s second largest financial market is still struggling to emerge from a prolonged downturn in its property domain and to encourage consumers and businesses to spend more China s ruling Commumist Party leadership convened a meeting Monday in Beijing that is expected to set protocol goals for the coming five years and also tackle personnel changes The outcome of the closed door meeting this week will likely emerge gradually and be formally endorsed at the annual session of the national legislature in early March Hong Kong s Hang Seng advanced to while the Shanghai Composite index added to In South Korea the Kospi surged to setting another record on hopes for a agreement deal with Washington and strong demand for semiconductors SK Hynix gained while automakers Kia Corp rose and Hyundai Motor Co climbed Australia s S P ASX rose to On Friday U S stocks cruised higher after banks recovered several of their sharp losses from the day before The S P rose to The Dow Jones Industrial Average added to and the Nasdaq composite climbed to It was the best week for the S P since early August Various of the nervousness around U S -China pact tensions eased on Friday after President Donald Trump declared that very high tariffs he threatened to put on Chinese imports are not sustainable Trump also explained Fox News Channel s Sunday Morning Futures that he would meet with China s leader Xi Jinping at an upcoming conference in South Korea That s counter to an earlier angry posting he made on social media where he reported there seemed to be no reason for such a meeting Bank stocks meanwhile stabilized on Friday after several published stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected including Truist Financial Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Zions Bancorp which is charging off million of loans where it determined apparent misrepresentations and contractual defaults by the borrowers climbed following a loss on Thursday Western Alliance Bancorp which is suing a borrower due to claims of fraud rose after a fall on Thursday The quality of loans that banks and other lenders have made is under scruntiny following last month s Chapter bankruptcy protection filing of First Brands Group a supplier of aftermarket auto parts The question is whether the lenders problems are just a collection of one-offs or a signal of something larger threatening the industry Uncertainty is high following a long stretch where a great number of borrowers were able to stay in business even with the weight of higher interest rates And with prices soaring to records for all kinds of investments the appetite for exposure may have gotten too high JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon addressed the issue on an earnings conference call with analysts earlier this week When you see one cockroach there are allegedly more Dimon stated Everyone should be forewarned on this one In other dealings early Monday U S benchmark crude oil lost cents to a barrel Brent crude the international standard also gave up cents to a barrel The U S dollar rose to Japanese yen from yen The euro climbed to from Source
