Daily Times

Most Asian markets edged up on Thursday after a recent sell-off across global markets but gains were tempered as the optimism that pushed equities to multi-year highs last week gives way to investor caution.

Prices have been falling for much of the week as the sharp gains of October and early November led to profit-taking and worries about high valuations, while US lawmakers’ tax reform struggles are also dampening sentiment. Eyes are on Washington as Republicans from each chamber of Congress provide differing plans to overhaul the tax system, raising concerns they will not be able to push anything through before the end of the year, as Donald Trump had hoped.

The most recent idea in the Senate is to repeal the Obamacare individual mandate as part of the plan, leading to speculation the legislation could collapse in the same way as their healthcare reforms. “This is a classic omnibus political stunt to get an unattractive piece of legislation passed by stapling it to something that is likely to get passed,” Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader, said. “But, given that such a move was already expressly voted down on the floor of the Senate, and taking into account resistance from House Republicans it may have just made the President’s Christmas timetable a little harder to meet.” Failure of the bill could hit world equities, which have rallied on the back of hopes the market-friendly measures would be introduced. On Wall Street all three indexes were sharply lower a week after posting record highs. Tokyo, which had fallen for six straight days after hitting a 25-year high on Tuesday, jumped 1.5 percent, while Hong Kong added 0.6 percent and Shanghai put on 0.1 percent. Sydney was 0.2 percent up and Seoul added 0.6 percent, while Wellington, Taipei and Manila were in positive territory. However, Singapore shed 0.4 percent.

With oil prices creeping up slightly energy firms in Asia were mixed following this week’s big losses in the commodity. Hong Kong-listed CNOOC was up 0.7 percent but PetroChina shed 0.4 percent, while Inpex in Tokyo lost almost two percent and Sydney-listed Rio Tinto ticked up. Crude plummeted on Tuesday and Wednesday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its forecast for crude consumption for next year. That was compounded by data pointing to a rise in US stockpiles.

While official figures Wednesday showed the increase in reserves was not as big as expected, investors remain on edge, and there are also worries an OPEC-Russia output cut might not be extended. “It sounds like there is some discourse between OPEC and non-OPEC in terms of not committing to something at the end of the month, and maybe kicking the can down the road,” Nick Holmes, an analyst at US-based Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC, told Bloomberg News.

Key figures

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.5 percent at 22,351.12 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: UP 0.6 percent at 29,023.67

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,405.79

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1777 from $1.1800 at 2150 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 113.09 yen from 112.85 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3170 from $1.3168

Oil – West Texas Intermediate: UP three cents at $55.36 per barrel

Oil – Brent North Sea: UP 11 cents at $61.98

New York – DOW: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,271.28 (close)

London – FTSE 100:
DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,372.61 (close).

Published in Daily Times, November 17^th 2017.