SYDNEY- Asian share markets made guarded gains on Monday as investors waited anxiously to see if imminent tariffs would go ahead, while bitcoin surged on news it would be included in a new US strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies.
US President Donald Trump on social media announced five digital assets he expected to include in a new reserve, including bitcoin ether XRP solana and cardano
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, shot up 10 percent on Sunday before paring some gains on Monday to $93,230, while ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, pulled back to $2,448 after climbing 13 percent a day earlier.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.7 percent. Chinese blue chips added 0.1 percent, with a rise in the Caixin/S&P manufacturing PMI to 50.8 in February from 50.1 lending support.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were both up 0.2 percent. They staged a late rally on Friday after a week of heavy losses.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 0.7 percent, while DAX futures rose 0.8 percent. FTSE futures meanwhile, gained 0.6 percent.
Investors seemed encouraged that European leaders agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to take to the United States, following President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s clash with Trump in the Oval Office.
Worries about the health of the US economy resurfaced after a string of soft data that had seen the closely watched Atlanta Fed GDPNow tracker swing to an annualized -1.5 percent, from +2.3 percent, sparking talk of a possible recession.
Those fears were fanned on Sunday when US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday, but that Trump would determine whether to stick with the planned 25 percent level.
