On Friday morning (10 May, 9:18 AM, GMT+7, Bangkok time), major indices in Asia Pacific increased following the gains in the US market, as weekly jobless claims in the US grew higher than expected and raised expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates during the year. Meanwhile, Japan’s overall household spending dropped below economists’ expectations polled by Reuters of 2.4% to 1.2% YoY, while the figures beat expectations on a monthly basis as they increased by 1.2% compared to an expectation of 0.3% drop.
Japan’s NIKKEI rose by 0.7% to 38,341.78. South Korea’s KOSPI grew by 0.77% to 2,732.98, and Australia’s ASX 200 increased by 0.47% to 7,757.9.
As for stocks in China, Shanghai’s SSEC declined by 0.34% to 3,143.59. Shenzhen’s SZI dropped by 0.93% to 9,697.25, while Hong Kong’s HSI gained 0.8% to 18,685.41.
Meanwhile, the US stock markets edged up on Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) surged by 0.85% to 39,387.76. NASDAQ rose by 0.27% to 16,346.26, and S&P 500 increased by 0.51% to 5,214.08. VIX slumped by 2.38% to 12.69.
As for commodities, oil prices edged higher on Friday as China’s economy showed signs of improvement from rising oil imports in April, while tensions in the Middle East continued. Brent futures rose 37 cents, or 0.4%, to $84.24 a barrel, and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grew 41 cents, or 0.5%, to $79.64 at 0003 GMT.
This morning, Brent gained 34 cents or 0.41% to $84.22 a barrel, and the WTI surged 41 cents or 0.52% to $79.67 per barrel.
Meanwhile, gold futures edged up by 0.77% to $2,358.3 per Troy ounce.
