Asian Shares Higher As Market Anticipates Year's Last Wave Of Fed Rate Hikes

Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, as the Federal Reserve and other central banks prepared for the year’s final barrage of interest rate hikes, Elaine Kurtenbach reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Shares fell in India and Taiwan but rose in Singapore and Bangkok.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 27,925.38 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.6% to 19,572.66. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher to 7,195.00. In Seoul, the Kospi edged 0.1% lower to 2,370.55. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.2% to 3,172.36. Shares fell in India and Taiwan but rose in Singapore and Bangkok.

On Wall Street on Monday, the S&P 500 rallied 1.4% to 3,990.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.6% to 34,005.04. The Nasdaq climbed 1.3% to 11,143.74. The Russell 2000 gained 1.2% to 1,818.61. The indices were coming off their first weekly loss in three weeks.

Technology stocks accounted for a big share of the market’s gains. Microsoft rose 2.9% and was the biggest single force lifting the S&P 500. The London Stock Exchange Group agreed to a 10-year deal where it will move data to Microsoft’s cloud and spend at least $2.8 billion. Microsoft is also taking a 4% ownership stake in the company.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and other loans, rose to 3.61% from 3.59% late Friday.

The two-year yield, which tends to more closely track expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.39% from 4.34%.

Energy producers rose Monday after the price of U.S. oil settled 3% higher. Exxon Mobil rose 2.5%. US benchmark crude added 73 cents to $73.90 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the basis for pricing for international trading, picked up 93 cents to $78.92 per barrel. Last week, crude prices scraped their lowest levels of the year on worries about a weakening global economy, which would mean less demand for energy, Stan Choe and Alex Veiga also reported for AP.

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