Asian markets gain on Wednesday

Asian shares opened mostly higher on Wednesday although stocks in Hong Kong were lower. The advance followed a broad rally on Wall Street, with solid contributions from Big Tech companies, banks and other sectors.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 NIK, +1.00% rose 0.6% and the Kospi 180721, 0.94% in South Korea edged 0.3% higher. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.92% surged 0.9%. The Hang Seng HSI, 0.07% in Hong Kong declined 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite index SHCOMP, 0.08% rose 0.2%. Stocks advanced in Singapore STI, 0.59%, Taiwan Y9999, +0.07% and Indonesia JAKIDX, +1.32%.

Overnight, Big Tech companies and banks helped power a broad rally on Wall Street Tuesday, though shares in GameStop and other recent high-flying stocks hyped by online traders plunged.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4%, extending gains from a day earlier, as investors sized up the latest batch of company earnings reports. Rising crude oil prices and solid earnings results helped lift energy companies, including Exxon Mobil and Marathon Petroleum. Treasury yields rose and the VIX, a measure of fear in the market, fell sharply, a sign volatility was easing.

The wave of buying coincided with a skid in GameStop GME, -60.00% and AMC Entertainment AMC, -41.20%, stocks that have been caught up in a speculative frenzy by traders in online forums and on social media who seek to inflict damage on Wall Street hedge funds that have bet these stocks would fall. The price of silver SI00, 1.55%, which spiked 9% Monday, fueling speculation the precious metal was also being hyped up by online traders, sank by more than 10%.

“Certainly, there’s been some profit-taking in these names,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. “You saw with silver, there was an attempt to try a similar cornering of the market, and that didn’t even last two days.”

The S&P 500 index SPX, +1.39% rose 52.45 points to 3,826.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.57% gained 475.57 points, or 1.6%, to 30,687.48. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite COMP, +1.56% climbed 209.38 points, or 1.6%, to 13,612.78. The major indexes remain near their all-time highs set last month.

Treasury yields rose in another sign of investor confidence. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.10% from 1.06% late Monday.

In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil CLH21, 0.27% gained 27 cents to $55.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude BRNJ21, 0.30%, the international standard, picked up 25 cents to $57.71 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar USDJPY, 0.04% slipped to 104.95 Japanese yen from 104.98 yen late Tuesday.

source:maketwatch.com