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Nikkei charges toward all-time high, dollar under pressure

Japan's Nikkei charged toward an alltime high up on Friday, assisted higher by a buoyant Wall Street after a big fall in U.S. retail sales restored the opportunity of a June rate cut, which in turn weighed on the dollar.

Nikkei surged 1.4% to 38,678 points, just within a. hair of the all-time high of 38,957 points struck in 1989 that. marked the peak of Japan's so called bubble economy.

The index is up 4.8% for the week, the 3rd straight week. of gains, bringing the year-to-date gains to a shocking 15.6%.

Elsewhere, Asian shares primarily tracked Wall Street. higher. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside. Japan increased 0.3% and was headed for a 1.4% weekly. gain.

Figures on Thursday showed that Japan and Britain slipped. into economic crisis at the end of last year, and U.S. retail sales. last month fell far more than expected. But the upshot of that. might be relatively looser monetary policy.

I think the need picture is certainly starting to. fracture in some of the industrialized market economies, stated Tony. Sycamore, market expert at IG. So it does bring forward the. idea of rate cuts.

One by one the dominoes are beginning to fall. The UK and. Japan fell the other day. Undoubtedly there's a long way to choose the. U.S. to fall under recession because their numbers have actually been. pretty good. Europe you know it might be the beside go. And. China's not fantastic.

Nomura on Thursday forecast the Nikkei would reach 40,000. points by the end of the year, citing factors such as an end to. deflation in Japan, worldwide investment moving far from. dependence on Chinese equities and enhancement in Japanese. business governance.

Overnight, information revealed the U.S. retail sales fell by 0.8% in. January, the sharpest drop in 10 months, puzzling. expectations of a small dip of 0.1%.

Markets moved to completely price in a rate cut from the Federal. Reserve in June, reversing a few of the price action after a. stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation report prompted traders to. give up bets for early rate relief.

That cheered Wall Street with the S&P 500 getting. 0.6%, the Nasdaq Composite up 0.30% and Dow Jones. Industrial Average firming 0.91%.

The rearranging in rate of interest expectations weighed on. the dollar, which lost 0.4% versus its peers over night and was. last at 104.36. Traders are awaiting the produce rate data. later on in the day for more clues on Fed policy.

The yen captured some break from the dollar's. retreat and was last at 149.9 per dollar. It acquired 0.4%. overnight to move far from the critically watched 150 level. that might invite possible Japanese intervention.

Treasuries recuperated a few of the losses from the. hotter-than-expected CPI figures previously in the week. The yield. on criteria 10-year notes was little changed at. 4.2496%, after slipping 3 basis points overnight. It was still. up 6 basis points for the week.

Two-year Treasury yields edged 2 basis points. greater to 4.5930% and was up 10 basis points for the week.

Oil rates were mixed on Friday after leaping the previous. session. The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday. flagged slowing need development this year.

Brent alleviated 0.2% to $82.73, while U.S. crude. edged 0.1% lower to $77.98 per barrel.

The area gold cost was flat at $2,003.09.

(source: Reuters)