Asian Markets Track Wall Street Higher

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, on continued optimism over the outlook for interest rates, with the US Fed widely expected to lower rates by a least a quarter point next month. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants the Fed to keep the door open to a larger, 50 basis point rate cut next month following recent weak US jobs data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 93.8 percent chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in September.

US President Donald Trump also continues to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower rates and recently threatened to allow a "major lawsuit" to proceed against him over renovations at the Fed's headquarters.

The Australian market is trading significantly higher on Thursday, reversing the losses in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to near the 8,900 level to fresh all-time highs, with gains in mining, energy and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 70.70 points or 0.80 percent to 8,897.80, after touching a fresh all-time high of 8,898.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 69.00 points or 0.76 percent to 9,172.10. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Wednesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Mineral Resources is advancing more than 3 percent and Fortescue is adding more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is losing more than 2 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy is gaining more than 1 percent, Santos is edging up 0.1 percent and Origin Energy is surging almost 5 percent on upbeat full-year results, while Woodside Energy is edging down 0.1 percent.

In the tech space, Afterpay owner Block is advancing almost 3 percent, Appen is gaining more than 1 percent and WiseTech Global is adding almost 1 percent, while Zip is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is down more than 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, National Australia Bank is advancing more than 3 percent, ANZ Banking is gaining almost 3 percent and Westpac is surging more than 6 percent on upbeat third-quarter results. Commonwealth Bank is losing almost 1 percent.

Among gold miners, Northern Star Resources is gaining more than 1 percent, Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent and Gold Road Resources is edging up 0.2 percent, while Newmont is edging down 0.3 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Thursday.

The Japanese market is trading sharply lower on Thursday, snapping the seven-session winning streak, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling below the 42,800 level, with weakness in index heavyweights, exporters and technology stocks partially offset by gains in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 42,726.63, down 548.04 points or 1.27 percent, after hitting a low of 42,641.75 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is losing more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is losing 1.5 percent and Honda is edging down 0.2 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is declining almost 3 percent, Tokyo Electron is losing more than 2 percent and Screen Holdings is down almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric are losing more than 1 percent each, while Canon is declining almost 2 percent and Panasonic is slipping more than 2 percent.

Among other major losers, Socionext and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are losing more than 5 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries is slipping more than 4 percent. Furukawa Electric and Recruit Holdings are declining almost 4 percent each, while Shimizu and Ryohin Keikaku are down more than 3 percent each. Aeon, Hitachi, Kajima and Taisei are sliding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, Citizen Watch and NEXON are gaining more than 4 percent each, while Nitori Holdings is adding almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 146 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia are higher by between 0.2 and 0.5 percent each, while Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are lower by between 0.1 and 0.6 percent each.

On Wall Street, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday but managed to close mostly higher after initially extending the rally seen during Tuesday's session. Despite pulling back well off their highs of the session, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 still reached new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq inched up 31.24 points or 0.1 percent to 21,713.14 and the S&P 500 rose 20.82 points or 0.3 percent to 6,466.58, while the narrower Dow posted a more significant gain, jumping 463.66 points or 1.0 percent to 44,922.27.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both advanced by 0.7 percent.

Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency projected oversupply in the market this year due to surging supply from oil producers. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $0.55 or 0.87 percent at $62.62 per barrel.