Asian stocks rose Friday after Wall Street hit a new high and a survey showed Japanese manufacturing accelerating.
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KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4 percent to 2,766.86 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 advanced 1 percent to 23,905.76. Seoul’s Kospi added 0.4 percent to 2,332.94 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 6,181.90. India’s Sensex was 0.7 percent higher at 37,369.88 and benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and Southeast Asia also advanced.
WALL STREET: The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index set records as a wave of buying pushed prices higher. Technology stocks, banks and health care companies accounted for much of the rally. Energy companies declined along with crude oil prices. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent to 2,930.75. The Dow gained 1 percent to 26,656.98. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1 percent to 8,028.23.
ANALYST’S TAKE: “The resilience in the U.S. market is evident here and the breakout further renews the momentum,” said Jinyi Pan of IG in a report. Still, “warning signs are abundant” amid U.S.-Chinese trade tensions, Pan said. “Cautiousness in the form of stop losses may be ever so important with the uncertainty in post-tariffs exchanges lingering into next week.”
TRADE TENSION: The latest U.S. tariff hike on Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s technology policy takes effect Monday, when Washington imposes an additional 10 percent tax on $200 billion of imports. The tariffs will rise to 25 percent on Jan 1. Beijing announced it would retaliate by imposing tariffs of 5 or 10 percent on $60 billion of U.S. goods including coffee, honey and industrial chemicals.
JAPANESE MANUFACTURING: A preliminary version of Japan’s monthly purchasing managers’ index showed factory activity accelerated in September. The PMI rose to a three-month high of 52.9 from August’s 52.5 on a 100-point scale. The measure of new export orders rose to a four-month high.
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ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 6 cents to $70.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 55 cents on Thursday to close at $70.32. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 6 cent to $78.28 per barrel in London. It tumbled 70 cents the previous session to $78.22.
CURRENCY: The dollar gained to 112.77 yen from Thursday’s 112.46 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1784.
