Reuters reported: Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday as upbeat economic data strengthened the prospect for higher U.S. interest rates, while the dollar's bull run continued as U.S. bond yields hovered near multi-year highs.
Japanese stocks swam against the tide and rose to a near 11-month high as the yen weakened and after Wall Street shares closed at record highs overnight.The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS pulled back from a 12-day high scaled the previous day to lose 0.5 percent, facing the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates diverting money from emerging markets. It has lost 3.5 percent this month.
It's now no secret that Trumpism--at least so far--has been good for financial stocks and Japanese banks have been no exception as banks make money on the spread in interest rates and the spreading feeling among investors that business will pick up under the new administration. The dollar index moved higher again its basket of six currencies, strengthening 0.2% to 101.84. Rising U.S. bonds yields helped the dollar along the way. The Korean won fell 0.2% against the dollar Thursday, the Indonesian rupiah was off 0.4%, the Japanese yen slipped 0.1% and the Malaysian ringgit was 0.4% lower. As investor became aware of the latest Fed minutes from November the prospect of higher interest rates added some fuel to the dollar's rise against Asian currencies. The yen weakened further against the dollar to trade at 112.67, compared with levels near 111.04 in the previous session and at levels below 110 in the previous week.
U.S. crude futures traded at $47.97 a barrel after rising 0.4 percent on Wednesday, while global benchmark Brent was at $48.93 a a barre, following an overnight gain of 0.3 percent. Gold fell near $1,180 as traders moved away from safe harbor assets and jumped into more risky ones leaving gold to languish from it previous level of $1,220 just last week.
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