On Friday morning (8 Mar, 9:44 AM, GMT+7, Bangkok time), most major indices in Asia Pacific rose as US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that the US interest rate could be cut in the near future, while the bank awaited to get more confident on inflation to move sustainably at 2%. Meanwhile, investors also kept their eyes on the State of the Union address by US President Joe Biden tonight.
Japan’s NIKKEI increased by 0.84% to 39,931.16. South Korea’s KOSPI soared by 1.39% to 2,684.34, and Australia’s ASX 200 climbed by 0.85% to 7,829.5.
As for stocks in China, Shenzhen’s SZI grew by 0.19% to 9,285.22. Hong Kong’s HSI edged up by 1.03% to 16,396.88, while Shanghai’s SSEC slid by 0.1% to 3,024.39.
Meanwhile, the US stock markets edged higher on Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 0.34% to 38,791.35. NASDAQ surged by 1.51% to 16,273.38, and S&P 500 rose by 1.03% to 5,157.36. VIX edged down by 0.41% to 14.44.
As for commodities, oil prices settled lower on Thursday as investors assessed China’s import and export growth against increasing oil supply from the west. Brent remained unchanged at $82.96 per barrel, and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slid 20 cents or 0.25% to $78.93 a barrel.
This morning, Brent rose 32 cent or 0.39% to $83.28 a barrel, and WTI increased 41 cents or 0.52% to $79.34 per barrel.
Meanwhile, gold futures slid by 0.03% to $2,164.6 per Troy ounce.
