Asian stocks close higher after strong gains on Wall Street

Asian stocks closed higher on Wednesday (18) following the positive tone of Wall Street, which last Tuesday had solid gains in the wake of comments from Federal Reserve Chairman (Fed, the US central bank), Jerome Powell.

Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.94% in Tokyo today to 26,911.20 points, while the Hang Seng rose 0.20% in Hong Kong to 20,644.28 points, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.21%. in Seoul, at 2,625.98 points, and the Taiex registered an increase of 1.50% in Taiwan, at 16,296.86 points.

On Tuesday, New York stocks secured robust gains after Powell’s speeches and also supported by US retail and industrial data.

Although he reinforced the Fed’s focus on fighting inflation through rate hikes, Powell assessed that the US economy is strong enough to withstand the monetary tightening, bringing some relief to investors.

For him, it is possible for prices in the US to return to stability without damaging the job market too much.

From Japan, there was also some encouragement. There GDP contracted 0.2% between January and March compared to the previous three months, but analysts had forecast a larger drop of 0.4%.

In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite bucked Asia’s upside and retreated 0.25% today to 3,085.98 points, but the less comprehensive Shenzhen Composite secured a slight rise of 0.08% to 1,941.54 points.

Progress in Shanghai – China’s largest city – in combating the local outbreak of Covid-19 follows on the radar.

In Oceania, the Australian stock exchange was in the blue for the fourth session in a row, up 0.99% on the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney, at 7,182.70 points.