The umpteenth positive closure of Wall Street – the Dow continues to set new records (the longest rally since 1996) and the S&P 500 has closed the distance from the historical record to 1 per thousand – this was reflected in Asia.
The positive closure in America owes much to the drop in new unemployment benefits, a drop that puts another piece in the mosaic of the US recovery. In Japan, the upper house also approved the appointment of Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the Bank of Japan and the stock market celebrated the certainty of the new turn in monetary policy. The MSCI Asia Pacific index is up 0,8% and a positive change for the week ending today is now in place. Chinese stocks also rose, putting aside worries about the real estate sector.
In the currency field, the euro has recovered, once again crossing the 1,30 threshold and the yen is back above the 96 mark. Gold is once again trying to return towards 1600 dollars/ounce, and oil has risen also above 93 (WTI) and above 109 (Brent).
