Asian stocks push hirer after upbeat Wall Street session

Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press</span>
Published Friday, October 27, 2017 1:15AM EDT

TOKYO - Shares in Asia posted strong gains early Friday, tracking the upbeat session overnight on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.0 per cent to 21,957.44 as the U.S. dollar strengthened against the yen, boosting exporters' shares. Investors are watching for U.S. GDP data.

KEEPING SCORE: Gains for U.S. technology companies pushed South Korea's Kospi up 0.5 per cent to 2,493.50 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 0.9 per cent to 28,445.16. The Shanghai Composite index added 0.2 per cent to 3,414.00 and Australia's S&P ASX 200 edged up less than 0.1 per cent to 5,918.90. Shares in Taiwan and Southeast Asia also climbed.

WALL STREET: A good day for technology companies and banks helped the market recover some losses from earlier in the week. However drugmakers and distributors tumbled. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.1 per cent to 2,560.40. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.3 per cent to 23,400.86 while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.1 per cent to 6,556.77. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks added 0.3 per cent to 1,497.46.

EURO OPTIMISM: Regional stock indexes jumped after the European Central Bank said Thursday it will begin gradually reducing bond purchases it's been making to strengthen the regional economy. Starting in January the bank plans to cut the size of its purchases in half, to 30 billion euros a month. Investors were relieved the bank isn't being more aggressive. "The market was a little bit fearful that the ECB was going to be more hawkish," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "That wasn't the case."

JAPAN INFLATION: The consumer price index was steady, with core inflation excluding fresh food and energy costs at 0.2 per cent in September. "With the tailwind from higher energy prices set to fade, we think that price gains will level off around 0.5 per cent in coming months," said Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics. That leaves little room for monetary tightening with the Bank of Japan due hold a policy meeting next week.

ANALYST VIEWPOINT: "Following Japan's inflation numbers, which came in line with expectations, there remains a series of data releases in the region including China's industrial profits and Singapore's unemployment rate. Nevertheless, the tier-1 data in the US markets, namely US Q3 GDP, would be the key item to watch," Jingyi Pan of IG said in a commentary.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 114.21 yen from 114.00 yen. The euro fell to $1.1634 from $1.1654 as investors think interest rates in Europe will stay lower for longer than they had expected. The weaker euro helped shares of companies that export goods from Europe.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude added 2 cents to $52.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 46 cents to $52.64 a barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 6 cents to $59.10 a barrel.

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