Asian markets rise after Wall Street skyrockets; Japan soars 4%

Asian markets rose on Thursday afternoon following an overnight surge in stocks on Wall Street, with all three major indexes stateside posting gains of more than 4.9 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225, which has veered in and then out of bear market territory this week, surged 4.03 percent in afternoon trade while the Topix jumped 4.93 percent as the two indexes climbed for the second-straight day after their Christmas Day tumble.

Shares of Japan Display surged 7.35 percent on the back of a report that the iPhone XR comprised 32 percent of Apple’s iPhone sales in the U.S. in the 30 days after its release. Japan Display supplies the liquid crystal display panels used in the iPhone XR.

In Australia, the ASX 200 rose around 1.79 percent, with all sectors seeing gains.

Of note, the energy sector Down Under jumped more than 3 percent, with shares of oil-related companies advancing. Santos rose 3.24 percent, Woodside Petroleum gained 4.23 percent and Beach Energy climbed up by 1.71 percent.

Similar gains were seen in Japan, where Inpex advanced 3.75 percent, JXTG jumped 7.13 percent, Fuji Oil gained 5.19 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration soared 4.57 percent.

Those moves came on the back of a strong rebound in oil prices on Wednesday, which saw both U.S. and international benchmark Brent crude post their largest one-day increase since Nov. 30, 2016, when OPEC signed a landmark agreement to cut production.

Both U.S. and Brent crude pared some of Wednesday’s big gains, however, in the afternoon of Asian trading hours on Thursday. The U.S. crude futures contract slipped 0.37 percent to $46.05 per barrel while the Brent crude futures contract also shed 0.37 percent to $54.27 per barrel.

The mainland Chinese markets, which have been closely watched as a result of Beijing’s trade war with Washington, saw gains by the end of the morning session. The Shanghai composite gained about 0.56 percent while the Shenzhen composite rose 0.545 percent and the Shenzhen component saw gains of 0.629 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also rose around 0.62 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi recovered from earlier losses to rise 0.23 percent.

Wall Street jumps

In market action stateside, stocks saw major gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest single-day point gain in history, jumping 1,086.25 points, or 4.98 percent, to close at 22,878.45.

Wednesday’s gain also marked the biggest upside move on a percentage basis for the Dow since March 23, 2009, when it rose 5.8 percentage points.

The S&P 500 also catapulted 4.96 percent — its best day since March 2009 — to finish the trading day at 2,467.70. The Nasdaq Composite also had its best day since March 23, 2009, soaring 5.84 percent to close at 6,554.36.

Wednesday marked the biggest post-Christmas rally for U.S. stocks ever.

Because U.S. exchanges were closed Tuesday for the holiday, the moves on Wall Street followed Monday’s sharp sell-off, which sent the major indexes down more than 2 percent and ended with the S&P 500 falling into a bear market. The S&P 500 was down 20.06 percent from an intraday record high set on Sept. 21 before Wednesday’s sharp rebound.

On Wednesday afternoon, futures pointed to a slight decline for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq at the open on Thursday.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.816 after touching an earlier high of 96.939.

The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe-haven currency, traded at 110.86 after touching highs above 110 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was at $0.7059 after seeing lows around the $0.703 handle yesterday.

Source: CNBC