Asian stocks rose for a seventh day in the longest rally this year, hovering near four-month highs on Thursday. News that China is taking steps to stimulate its economy sent the Japanese yen to a two-month low and spurred Tokyo's Nikkei to a three-week peak. The yen languished at 10-week lows as equity markets rose, denting safe-haven demand for the currency.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.3 percent by 11:43 a.m. in Hong Kong, as Japan’s Topix index gained 0.8 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) futures were little changed after the gauge climbed a fourth day, extending its record. The yen weakened 0.2 percent to 104.07 per dollar, while copper dropped 0.8 percent and oil slid 0.2 percent.
European shares were also set for a higher start, with financial spread betters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 (.FTSE) to open up by 9-10 points, Germany's DAX (.GDAXI) by 10-12 points and France's CAC 40 (.FCHI) by 2-4 points.
China Takes Steps
China acted for the first time this year to steady its stumbling economy by cutting taxes for small firms on Wednesday and announcing plans to speed up the construction of railway lines. In response, China Railway Group Ltd. surged 5.6 percent in Hong Kong, while China Railway Construction Corp. rallied 8.1 percent.
The Chinese yuan was little changed at 6.2070 per dollar. The nation’s official non-manufacturing gauge dropped to 54.5 last month from 55 in February, data today showed.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.2 percent, the Kospi (KOSPI) index in Seoul rose 0.2 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.4 percent.
Other positive cues for investors came from another record-breaking performance on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 closing at an all-time high on Wednesday as markets lapped up another set of solid private-sector jobs and factory orders data.
U.S. employers probably added 200,000 workers to nonfarm payrolls in March, the biggest increase since November.
Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries were little changed at 2.80 percent, after rising five basis points yesterday as the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent.