Asia stocks extend rally.
Asian stock markets extended their rally on Friday, with technology and chipmaker shares leading gains, as investors tracked record highs on Wall Street amid expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut next week.
Hong Kong and South Korea were the top performers, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached a fresh record high despite political unrest in the country.
All three benchmark U.S. stock indexes closed at record highs on Thursday, driven by strong tech sector performance amid renewed AI optimism.
Investors reacted positively to a mixed set of U.S. economic data, which fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce interest rates at its upcoming meeting.
As of 00:19 ET (04:19 GMT), U.S. stock index futures traded largely unchanged.
Asia tech stocks rally tracking US peers
South Korea’s KOSPI index jumped 1.3%, buoyed by SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660), which surged nearly 6% to a record high after announcing the completion of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, and preparations for mass production.
Gold prices up near record highs.
Gold prices rose in Asian trading on Friday, hovering just below record highs, as signs of a cooling U.S. labour market reinforced bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut next week despite slightly stronger inflation data.
Spot gold was up 0.5% at $3,652.257 per ounce by 01:51 ET (05:51 GMT), not far from the all-time high of $3,673.95 touched earlier this week.
U.S. Gold Futures expiring in December also climbed 0.5% to $3,692.52/oz.
Bullion was set to rise 2% this week, heading for its fourth consecutive weekly jump. The metal has gained nearly 40% year-to-date.
Fed rate cut bets remain firm; traders assess US CPI, jobs data
Data on Thursday showed that U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4% in August, lifting annual inflation to 2.9%, the highest in seven months.
But the labour market showed further signs of weakness, with weekly jobless claims climbing to their highest in nearly four years and payroll growth slowing.
Bitcoin price today rises to $115k.
Bitcoin rose on Friday, tracking a broader advance in risk-driven markets amid persistent bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
But gains in crypto, especially Bitcoin, were held back by increasing doubts over the viability of corporate Bitcoin treasuries, after top holder Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR)) was rejected from inclusion in the S&P 500 earlier this month.
Bitcoin remained largely rangebound below $120,000.
The world’s largest crypto rose 1.2% to $115,604.3 by 01:56 ET (05:56 GMT). The coin was trading up 4.9% this week, seeing some buying after tumbling from mid-August record highs.
MicroStrategy S&P 500 snub is a blow to crypto treasuries- JPM
JPMorgan said the S&P 500 index committee’s rejection of Strategy from inclusion was a major setback for corporate crypto treasuries.
“This is signalling that the committee… is concerned about including in the S&P 500 index companies such as MicroStrategy that are effectively bitcoin funds,” JPM analysts wrote in a note this week.
Strategy’s sharp rise in valuation– on its Bitcoin exposure– saw its addition to several other indices, including the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 over the past year. This in turn invited more buying into the firm’s shares, as index fund operators adjusted their holdings accordingly.
But this trend may now be “reaching its limits,” JPM said, adding that the rejection also came amid overcrowding and investor fatigue in the corporate treasury sector. This in turn raised more questions about the long-term sustainability of Strategy’s model.
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