AFP, Hong Kong :
Asian investors moved cautiously Friday following a Wall Street rally inspired by better-than-expected US economic growth data, while South Africa’s rand plunged after President Jacob Zuma sacked his respected finance minister.
US investors cheered news that growth hit 2.1 percent in the last three months of 2016, which was 0.2 points better than first thought, with crucial consumer spending seeing a strong increase.
The result provided some much-needed support to markets after Donald Trump’s failure last week to push through his healthcare bill stoked fears he would have trouble with his promised tax-cut and spending promises-a key driver of a global rally since November.
“It’s only a small upgrade but the marginal increase… seemed to have an outsized impact on sentiment,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.
“That and the fact that the consumption component was upgraded seem to have been the key to reinforcing the strength of the US economy. We haven’t really seen any US data printing worse than expected for some months now. But for the moment the economy is supporting stocks in the US.”
While Wall Street enjoyed advances, Asian investors were not as impressed and positioned themselves as they closed their books before the end of the quarter.
Tokyo closed the morning up 0.7 percent thanks to a weaker yen but Hong Kong slipped 0.5 percent, Seoul lost 0.1 percent, Sydney was flat and Taipei shed 0.1 percent.
Shanghai was barely moved as investors were also unimpressed by a forecast-beating reading on Chinese factory activity.
The dollar rose against the yen and the euro, with support also coming from comments two top Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday and Thursday suggesting the central bank should raise interest rates another three times this year.
It also surged five percent against the rand after Zuma sacked finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who had enjoyed the support of many international investors and had campaigned for budget discipline.
Asian investors moved cautiously Friday following a Wall Street rally inspired by better-than-expected US economic growth data, while South Africa’s rand plunged after President Jacob Zuma sacked his respected finance minister.
US investors cheered news that growth hit 2.1 percent in the last three months of 2016, which was 0.2 points better than first thought, with crucial consumer spending seeing a strong increase.
The result provided some much-needed support to markets after Donald Trump’s failure last week to push through his healthcare bill stoked fears he would have trouble with his promised tax-cut and spending promises-a key driver of a global rally since November.
“It’s only a small upgrade but the marginal increase… seemed to have an outsized impact on sentiment,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.
“That and the fact that the consumption component was upgraded seem to have been the key to reinforcing the strength of the US economy. We haven’t really seen any US data printing worse than expected for some months now. But for the moment the economy is supporting stocks in the US.”
While Wall Street enjoyed advances, Asian investors were not as impressed and positioned themselves as they closed their books before the end of the quarter.
Tokyo closed the morning up 0.7 percent thanks to a weaker yen but Hong Kong slipped 0.5 percent, Seoul lost 0.1 percent, Sydney was flat and Taipei shed 0.1 percent.
Shanghai was barely moved as investors were also unimpressed by a forecast-beating reading on Chinese factory activity.
The dollar rose against the yen and the euro, with support also coming from comments two top Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday and Thursday suggesting the central bank should raise interest rates another three times this year.
It also surged five percent against the rand after Zuma sacked finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who had enjoyed the support of many international investors and had campaigned for budget discipline.
