BANGKOK — Shares rose in Asia on Thursday after Wall Street stocks recovered much of their sharp losses from a day before.
Benchmarks rose in most major markets apart from Seoul, while mainland Chinese markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Japan reported its economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.4% in the last quarter of 2023. Its nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, or about 591 trillion yen, putting it behind the U.S., China and Germany as the world’s fourth largest economy. Germany’s announced its GDP in 2023 was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225
JP:NIK
gained 0.7% and the Hang Seng index
HK:HSI
in Hong Kong edged 0.1% higher.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200
AU:XJO
advanced 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi
KR:180721
edged 0.1% lower.
India’s Sensex
IN:1
was up 0.4% and Taiwan’s Taiex
TW:Y9999
jumped 2.8%. The SET
TH:SET
in Bangkok was little changed.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500
SPX
climbed 1% to 5,000.62, clawing back more than two-thirds of its loss from Tuesday. A hotter-than-expected report on inflation forced investors to push back forecasts for when the Federal Reserve may begin cutting interest rates, potentially into the summer. Expectations for such cuts are a big reason stocks have rallied to records recently.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
gained 0.4% to 38,424.27 a day after after taking its worst loss in nearly 11 months. The Nasdaq composite
COMP
jumped 1.3% to 15,859.15.
The smallest stocks, which took the hardest hit from worries about higher interest rates on Tuesday, bounced back more than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index
RUT
leaped 2.4%.
Calm on the bond market helped to keep things steadier on Wall Street. Treasury yields eased after shooting upward a day earlier on expectations the Fed would keep rates high for longer. The central bank has already jacked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001 in hopes of slowing the overall economy just enough to grind high inflation down to its target.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.25% from 4.32% late Tuesday. It’s still well above its 3.85% level at the start of this month.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil
CLH24
fell 30 cents to $76.34 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude
BRNJ24
,
the international standard, lost 27 cents, to $81.33 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar
USDJPY
slipped to 150.24 Japanese yen from 150.46 yen.
