Asian equities rose on Thursday amid boost in investor sentiment after Chinese President Xi Jinping pave way for infrastructure boost in China to boost economic growth.
Shares in Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan gained.
In China, officials have promised financial aid amid the COVID lockdown. The latest move was a pledge to stabilize employment. Twin virus outbreaks continued in Shanghai and Beijing.
U.S. futures tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 1%. Treasuries change little.
Markets however remains volatile with China’s latest struggle to cope with COVID-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine which along Fed’s aggressive tightening which could push the economy in recession.
“The uncertainty factor is something we’ve seen over the years,” said Kate Moore, BlackRock Global Allocation Team Head of Thematic Strategy in a Bloomberg television interview.
“There’s a lot of crosscurrent. And against that background, it’s hard to see volatility decreasing so dramatically.”
Meanwhile, Bank of Japan is expected to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy.
In commodities market, crude oil remained marginally down with the WTI trading around $100 a barrel and the Brent trading around $104 a barrel.
