08/22/2024 – 6:10
By Sergio Caldas*
São Paulo, 08/22/2024 – Asian stock markets closed without a single direction this Thursday, with some of them following Wall Street, which recovered yesterday awaiting a speech by the chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed, the US central bank), Jerome Powell.
Leading gains in the Asian region, the Hang Seng advanced 1.44% in Hong Kong, to 17,641.00 points, while the Japanese Nikkei rose 0.68% in Tokyo, to 38,211.01 points, and the Kospi rose 0.24% in Seoul, to 2,707.67 points, after the South Korean central bank kept its base interest rate at 3.5% for the 13th time in a row, the longest streak in history.
Yesterday, the New York stock exchanges showed modest gains, but resumed the positive tone that had been interrupted in the previous trading session, after a downward revision in the number of jobs created in the US and signals from the Fed’s latest monetary policy minutes increasing the chances that the US central bank will cut interest rates more aggressively in the coming months.
Tomorrow (23), all eyes will be on Jackson Hole, a small town in the US state of Wyoming, where Powell will give a speech. The expectation is that the Fed chairman will confirm his intention to cut US interest rates for the first time in four and a half years at the September meeting.
Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese and Taiwanese markets were in the red on Monday. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.27% to 2,848.77 points, while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.07% to 1,505.08 points, as software stocks fell. Taiwan’s Taiex Index fell 0.40% to 22,148.83 points.
In Oceania, the Australian stock exchange secured a rise for the tenth consecutive trading session, which had not happened since April 2015, still amid encouraging corporate earnings. The S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.21% in Sydney, to 8,027.00 points.
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*With information from Dow Jones Newswires
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