The first trading session of the week saw a positive start for most Asia-Pacific markets, following a tech-led surge on Wall Street on Friday.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.1%, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.8% and the KOSPI 200 was up 0.6% at 12:20 AM GMT.
In the US, stock indexes rose on Friday as the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.1%, the S&P 500 rose 1.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2%.
Despite Thursday's decline, which ended the S&P 500's longest winning streak since 2004, stocks regained momentum on Friday. That was partly due to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) reporting a rise in sales in October, which boosted chip inventories. However, comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell about the possibility of interest rate hikes and the government's sale of weak long-term debt weighed on the market.
Investors appeared to shrug off the University of Michigan’s preliminary survey for November, released Friday, which showed weak consumer sentiment and higher-than-expected inflation. Some stocks were hit by the earnings report, but overall the market showed resilience.
In commodities, Brent crude rose 1.8% to $81.43 a barrel, while gold fell 0.9% to $1,940.20. Local bond markets edged up, with the yield on the 2-year Australian government bond at 4.29% and the 10-year yield at 4.62%.
Asian Stocks
In Asia, Chinese stocks closed lower, with insurance and auto stocks leading the declines. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5% to 3,088.97, while the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 0.4%. Hong Kong stocks also closed lower, with the Hang Seng Index down 1.8% to 17,203.26. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.2% to close at 32,568.11 on concerns about further Fed tightening.
European Stocks
European stocks also fell, following the losses in Asia. The Stoxx Europe 600 and CAC 40 both fell more than 11TP3M, while the DAX fell 0.91TP3M. The FTSE 100 fell 11TP3M to 7,382.06, tracking the decline in European stocks after Powell's warning of a possible interest rate hike. Despite the losses, Brent crude rose 1.11TP3M to $80.92 a barrel, giving major oil companies a boost.
