Asian stock markets moved in an uptrend, reflecting Wall Street’s early gains, although investor sentiment remained gloomy amid concerns over the risk of an economic downturn.
The MSCI broad index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan rose 0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei added 0.6% due to the Yen’s sharp fall previously supporting exports.
Nasdaq Composite futures climbed 0.1% while S&P 500 futures rebounded 0.6% after falling 6% last week to trade 24% at January highs.
The Wall Street market closed today in conjunction with the United States (US) public holiday.
Gloomy Market Sentiment
On the other hand, the aggressive actions of major central banks in tightening monetary policy to control inflation could lead to a recession being the main concern of investors for this week's trading session.
United Kingdom (UK) inflation readings will be the focus this week which will push the Bank of England (BOE) aggressive tightening and speeches by several Federal Reserve (Fed) officials including Chairman Jerome Powell into investor attention.
For the record, the Fed last week reaffirmed its commitment to curb unconditional inflation while Fed Governor Christopher Waller expressed support for another 75 basis points in July.
The string the dollar index rose 104,680, approaching a 2 -decade high last week at 105,790.
The euro weakened after the French election to $ 1.0448 while the Japanese Yen remained under pressure from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) at 135.36 against the dollar since hitting a 1998 high last week.
For commodities, Brent crude was up 69 cents at $ 113.81 while US crude added 80 cents at $ 110.36.
Gold took advantage of the strengthening dollar to be at $ 1,838 an ounce.
