Market Review By TraderXP:
Oil rose in New York for the first time in three days, President Barack Obama and Congress are willing to get together to discuss abudget solution to meet the year-end deadline.
"The movement of the oil market depends on the financial rocks, but I do not think that it will lose its position," said Ken Hasegawa, energy trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo. "In the worst case, the situation can continue, as now, one month or several months."
Market News
Yen falls as Japan forms the new government, supporting the Nikkei
The yen fell to a 20-month low against the dollar on Wednesday, the economic growth of the test Nikkei Stock Average, as Japan marks a new prime minister sought to conduct decisive steps incentive to control the country's economy out of deflation.
Asian stocks and other assets were limited in thin holiday trade, with investors focusing on the fate of the talks, the U.S., to prevent a looming budget crisis at the end of the year.
Markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea were closed Tuesday for the Christmas holiday, the opening on Wednesday.
Hong Kong and Australia remained closed Wednesday. Europe will not be traded, but the U.S. markets reopen later in the day.
The broad MSCI Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 percent after rising 0.3 percent the previous day amid Shanghai stocks surge to five month high and shares jump Taiwan.
Shinzo Abe, whose party won a landslide victory in the election earlier this month, will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of Japan on Wednesday, when he is expected to appoint his cabinet. He appointment mixture of aggressive easing of monetary policy and significant budgetary resources to defeat deflation and curb the strong yen.
He kept the pressure on the Bank of Japan to deliver much more easing of monetary policy, and called on the 2 percent inflation target to beat entrenched deflation, pushing the yen to 20-month low of 85.38 yen on trading platform EBS on Wednesday. Traders looked at the 2011 high at 85.53 yen, the dollar as the next target.
The euro rose higher than 112.47 yen on EBS, approaching its 16-month high of 112.59 yen hit on December 19.
The weaker yen strengthened hopes for a better income from Japanese companies and is the basis of Nikkei, which received about 17 percent since mid-November, when the elections were scheduled, fueling hopes for Abe party to win. The yen lost almost 8 percent against the dollar over the same period.
Nikkei up 0.4 percent, holding above the key 10,000 mark.
"Most of the foreign funds added Japanese stocks and fewer members today, but there are still reasons Nikkei rise," said Hideyuki Okoshi, CEO Chibagin securities. "Not only exporters, but other investors buy stocks that could benefit under the new government."
Japanese government debt prices fell to 10-year futures connection drops to three-month low 143.65 in active trading. 10-year JGB yield rose 1.5 basis points to 0.780 percent for the six-week high hit on December 19.
"We continue to see the stock going high, so the pressure on the long end of the curve JGB. During the short end of the curve, we continue to see the BOJ ease aggressively, so that there is no change in this," said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of Japan fixed income investments PineBridge.
Minutes of the policy setting meeting in November, the Bank of Japan on Wednesday showed that some board members said the central bank should act decisively, not excluding any policy options if the economic outlook deteriorates further and prices.
The greenback was also expected to remain firm this week as investors repatriate dollars, and the U.S. financial deadlock is likely to continue to undermine investors' appetite for risky assets and improve shelter appeal dollar.
U.S. President Barack Obama may return to Washington from his Hawaiian holiday, as early evening asWednesday address incomplete "financial cliff" of negotiations with Congress, the administration official said Tuesday.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner failed to get support tax plan at the end of last week, prompting fears that the United States could face a financial cliff about $ 600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to start on January 1.
"The main index recovering headway on Monday and falling on a Friday, as investors eye talks with U.S. fiscal," Kim Soo-Young, an analyst at KB Securities, said South Korean shares, which were 0.7 percent higher in low holiday volume.
Activity is likely to remain subdued, with low volume and no major economic news.
Later in the session, Thailand will release data on trade, which is expected to show exports in November posting very strong growth over the past year low, reflecting the damage from flooding.
Key consumer sentiment index in South Korea in December, unchanged from November and was below the neutral point of the fifth consecutive month, the central bank said on Wednesday, reducing hopes for a quick economic recovery.
Gold edged lower on Wednesday on uncertainty over whether a financial cliff, but a weaker yen led the rally in bullion futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM). Reuters.com
