SALON

Friday, Jan 11, 2013 6:00 AM UTC

Japan’s Nikkei jumps on Abe’s stimulus package

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Japan's Nikkei jumps on Abe's stimulus packageA man walks by the electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013.(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye) (Credit: Itsuo Inouye)

BANGKOK (AP) — Japan’s Nikkei stock index jumped Friday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a massive spending package intended to breathe life into the country’s moribund economy. But other Asian benchmarks fell after the U.S. reported higher-than-expected jobless claims.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 1.4 percent to 10,801.45 following Abe’s announcement of an anti-recession stimulus package of more than 20 trillion yen ($224 billion) that is intended to add 2 percent to Japan’s real growth.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which won a parliamentary election last month, has promised major public works spending and other measures to revive the economy, which has been mired for years in deflation, or continually dropping prices, which deadens economic activity.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent to 23,292.16. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3 percent to 2,000.92. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.3 percent to 4,709.50. Benchmarks in Singapore and mainland China also fell while those in the Philippines and New Zealand rose.

Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong, said the market dips are likely being driven by investors who are cashing in shares after recent market rallies.

“Unless there is some exceptional good news, for Hong Kong, they have already shot up to a high level in the short term. There’s not a good chance for a breakthrough. So we expect the market goes into consolidation or some profit-taking. The market maybe will have a pullback, especially in the short term.”

Monthly inflation data showing a jump in food prices in China didn’t help sentiment. The prices of vegetables rose 14.8 percent after a severe winter hurt crop yields.

While below the government’s 4 percent inflation target for the year, the monthly inflation rate of 2.5 percent — a six-month high — could limit the government’s options for responding to any new slowdown in growth.

Among individual stocks, Japan’s Sharp Corp. soared 9.6 percent while Fast Retailing gained 4.7 percent. Hong Kong-listed GOME Electrical Appliances fell 2.9 percent.

On Thursday, a sharp improvement in Chinese trade boosted helped boost Wall Street despite an uptick in weekly applications for unemployment benefits. The U.S. Labor Department said applications rose 4,000 to 371,000 last week, the most in five weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 percent to 13,471.22.The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.5 percent to 3,121.76. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.8 percent to 1,472.12, its highest close in five years.

Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said in an email commentary that the data was a “slight disappointment” but that investors put aside their concerns about the U.S. after China’s strong trade data, which suggests global demand might be recovering.

Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 3 cents to $93.86 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 72 cents to finish at $93.82 a barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 89.07 yen from 88.19 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro rose to $1.362 from $1.3254. The euro jumped Thursday after the European Central Bank left its interest rate at the record low of 0.75 percent. In a press conference, ECB President Mario Draghi said the eurozone economy should start to grow again later this year.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

More By Pamela Sampson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations