Bonjour, new guests from small-town India
Puneet Dhawan of Accor is brimming with ideas on ways to revive the hospitality sector
Asian shares hovered near record highs on Monday while oil edged closer to $60 a barrel on hopes a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package will be passed by U.S. lawmakers as soon as this month just as coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out globally.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.3% at 717.2 after climbing as high as 730.16 late last month.
Japan's Nikkei jumped 2% while Australian shares advanced 0.8% led by technology and mining shares. Chinese shares were mildly positive with the blue-chip CSI300 index up 0.1%.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 added 0.4% in early Asian trading.
Hopes of a quicker economic revival and supply curbs by producer group OPEC and its allies pushed oil to its highest level in a year as it edged near $60 a barrel.
Global equity markets have scaled record highs in recent days on hopes of faster economic revival led by successful vaccine rollouts and expectations of a large U.S. pandemic relief package.
On Friday, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit all-time highs on stronger-than-expected corporate results in the fourth quarter and as companies were on track to post earnings growth for the first quarter instead of a decline.
The rallies came even as U.S. data painted a dour picture of the country's labour market with payrolls rising by 49,000, half of what economists were expecting.
The weak report spurred the push for more stimulus,underscoring the need for lawmakers to act on President JoeBiden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package.
Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress forged ahead with their stimulus plan on Friday as lawmakers approved a budget outline that will allow them to muscle through in the coming weeks without Republican support.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yallen predicted the United States would hit full employment next year if Congress can pass its support package.
"That's a big call given full employment is 4.1%, but one that will sit well with the market at a time when the vaccination programme is being rolled out efficiently in a number of countries," said Chris Weston, Melbourne-based chief strategist at Pepperstone.
Expectations of a U.S. economic recovery have not boosted the greenback though, "because this shift in prospects is seen by the market as part of a global recovery," Westpac economists wrote in a note.
"Investors therefore favour risk taking, and so value the safety of the U.S. dollar less."
Indeed, the greenback came off a four-month high against the Japanese yen to be last at 105.49.
The euro was a tad weaker after rising 0.7% on Friday to a one-week high of $1.2054. It was last at $1.2034.
The risk-sensitive Australian dollar eased from a one-week high to $0.7675.
In commodities, Brent crude and U.S. crude climbed 59cents each to $59.93 and $0.57.44 respectively.
U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $1,815.4 an ounce.
Puneet Dhawan of Accor is brimming with ideas on ways to revive the hospitality sector
Citroen’s first vehicle sports a novel design and European interiors. It is also meant to be as comfortable as ...
The pandemic is only the tip of the iceberg that the country’s cash-poor airlines — both regional and national ...
The government is yet to specify the framework of its recently announced old vehicle scrappage policy
This Women’s Day, we discuss the features of a few financial products that aim to help you save, get insured ...
Sensex, Nifty 50 make a strong bounce-back, but test resistances
Avenue Supermarts (₹3,286.1): Makes fresh all-time highIn October last year, the stock of Avenue Supermarts ...
The exchange-traded fund ticks all boxes as an efficient tool to track gold prices
Muriel has put our names down on a list to get the Covid-19 vaccination because — hurrah! — the age limit has ...
They are the health warriors who battled the Covid-19 pandemic on the ground, and are now the face of the ...
Uzbekistan’s grandest city dazzles tourists with its history, architecture and food
It’s the birth anniversary of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, one of the great artists and ...
Comfort, convenience, value, safety — and not necessarily the colour pink — but do brands deliver?
Why and how marketers have used camels, and left us thirsting for more
Start-up SALT wants to break feminine stereotypes around money, and is asking women to reassert agency
It’s that time of year again when brands suddenly start paying obeisance to women power. From sentimental to ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor