Friday 29 Mar 2024
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SYDNEY (Dec 11): Asian stocks look set to open mixed after their U.S. counterparts rebounded from sharp losses in a volatile session. The pound slumped after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May delayed a critical vote on a Brexit deal.

Equity-index futures gained in Japan and Australia and fell in Hong Kong. Major U.S. indexes finished in the green, buoyed by rallies in Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Earlier, the S&P 500 Index fell to the lowest intraday level since April, luring bargain hunters to buy the dip. The dollar jumped and oil dropped. Treasuries were little changed. In Asia, Indian assets will come into focus after the surprise resignation of the central bank’s governor, with futures contracts signaling a plunge in the rupee.

The markets are far from being out of the woods yet. Traders may need to steel themselves for the possibility of the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal, adding to a litany of concerns that have frayed sentiment, chief among them simmering trade tensions and clarity on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path in 2019.

Elsewhere, oil slid to its lowest in two weeks as doubts grew about whether OPEC and its allies can deliver enough output cuts to head off a glut. Auto companies led the retreat in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index as concern about the strength of China’s economy lingered. Emerging-market shares and currencies fell.

Here are some key events on the calendar this week:

* The European Central Bank is set to cap asset purchases at its final policy meeting of 2018 on Thursday.

* China industrial production, retail sales data for November is due Friday.

And these are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

* Futures on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.9 percent in Singapore.

* Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index futures gained 0.4 percent. 

* Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index contracts fell 0.8 percent. 

* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent at the close of trading in New York.

* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.9 percent.

* The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 2 percent.

Currencies

* The Japanese yen decreased 0.5 percent to 113.26 per dollar.

* The offshore yuan dropped 0.4 percent to 6.9121 per dollar. 

* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.5 percent.

* The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.1355.

* The British pound sank 1.3 percent to $1.2562, the weakest in almost 20 months.

* The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index sank 0.8 percent, the most in two months.

Bonds

* The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed one basis point to 2.86 percent.

Commodities

* West Texas Intermediate tumbled fell 3.4 percent to $50.85 a barrel.

* Copper slipped 1.3 percent to $2.725 a pound.

* Gold dipped 0.4 percent to $1,244.05 an ounce.

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