After Wall Street's records, Asia is little changed but ends the week well
The MSCI Asia Pacific regional index rose only slightly in the middle of the day, but enough to consolidate the strong gains of the week (the most favorable since last April). The record closing of the American stock exchanges (for both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500) helps maintain the positive tone of the last few days: Wall Street has reached its record despite a higher than expected increase in new unemployment benefits. Tokyo is up slightly, and is starting to taste again the highs (over 15) reached in May, also helped by the good news on the real economy front (order books and tertiary activity index).
The euro remains high against the dollar (1,308) and the yen is stable in the 99-100 range. Oil retraced the highs of the last 48 hours and WTI reaches 104.9 (107,6 $/b for Brent). Gold maintains the gains linked to the general weakening of the dollar and registers 1279 $/ounce.
China's finance minister said growth of 6,5% "wouldn't be a problem". Hopefully, one day Western finance ministers will say the same…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-11/asian-futures-climb-on-s-p-500-record-as-metals-advance.html
