Asian Stocks Rise as Investors Chase U.S. Markets

Asian stocks are moving higher early Wednesday with investors chasing the rise in U.S. indexes. U.S. markets rose in reaction to stellar corporate earnings and on expectations for U.S. President Donald Trump’s impending tax reforms.

Stocks in Asia rose across the board with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index up about 0.73 percent. The benchmark Korean index posted a gain of 0.33 percent. Strong gains were also experienced in China with the Hang Seng Index up by 0.58 percent and the Shanghai Composite up about 0.36 percent. The Shenzhen Composite was up about 0.323 percent.

Forex

The Australian Dollar weakened early in the session after the release of fresh consumer inflation data. The consumer price index rose 2.1 percent for the year, falling just short of forecasts. Underlying inflation also averaged around 1.8 percent, still under the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target band of 2 and 3 percent.

U.S. Equity Markets

U.S. stocks rose sharply on Tuesday, driven by robust quarterly reports from several major blue-chip stocks.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.12%. The benchmark S&P 500 Index came in up 0.61%. The highlight of the day was the NASDAQ Composite. It reached 6000 for the first time in history, closing at 6027.31, up 0.72%.

The groundwork for the rally was set before the regular session opening with Caterpillar, McDonald’s, 3M and DuPont beating both Earnings per Share and Revenue.

Later in the week, investors will get the opportunity to react to quarterly reports from corporate giants Boeing, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and General Motors.

The markets also rose in anticipation of the release of the Trump Administration’s tax reform plan. Investors have been waiting for this plan since the November election so it’s likely to trigger a volatile response.

Economic News

In economic news, U.S. home prices rose more than expected in February as reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The data showed the index jumped 5.8 percent in February, beating a 5.7 percent estimate.

New Home Sales were also up 5.8 percent to 621,000 in March, also above the estimate. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence report came in steady at 120.3 in April.

It’s a light day in the U.S. on Wednesday with the key report the weekly U.S. Energy Information Administration’s inventories report.