Asian stock markets follow the G7 Summit
Asia-Pacific markets rose massively after two of Wall Street’s three main indexes hit record highs Thursday night, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he was confident a deal on the US debt ceiling could be reached by next week.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite jumped on Thursday, hitting their highest closing levels since August 2022.
G7 leaders will meet in Hiroshima, Japan for the G-7 summit that begins today.
Japanese stocks were on track to see their best week since October as Nikkei 225 rose 0.86 percent to maintain their highest level since 1990 and Topix rose 0.33 percent to record their sixth winning streak. Core inflation in Japan increased by 3.4 percent year-on-year in April, maintaining levels above the central bank’s target.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.43 percent, South Korea’s Kospi 0.56 percent and Kosdaq 0.27 percent.
Meanwhile, major Chinese markets were against the trend: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.49 percent, and in mainland China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.44 percent. The Shenzhen Component Index was marginally lower.
Overnight in the US, all three major indices rose for the second day in a row, with the Nasdaq rising 1.51 percent to a 52-week high, while the S&P rose 0.94 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.34%.
