SYDNEY- Asian shares rose to a three-month peak after Wall Street hit all-time highs amid hopes of progress in Sino-US trade talks and for another dose of policy stimulus from the Federal Reserve this week.
Japan’s Nikkei led the way with a rise of 0.5 percent to reach ground last trod a full year ago, while Shanghai blue chips .CSI300 dithered either side of flat.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan crept up 0.2 percent to its highest since late July.
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 extended their gains by 0.1 percent and EUROSTOXX 50 futures held steady.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to sign a significant part of the trade deal with China ahead of schedule but did not elaborate on the timing.
The US trade representative also said they were studying whether to extend tariff suspensions on $34 billion of Chinese goods set to expire on Dec. 28 this year.
“The market appears to be interpreting the improvement in trade talks as a positive sign that the US will suspend its planned tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports due to take place in December,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.
“This is a big assumption as talks could easily fail again if both parties don’t find a compromise.”
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.56 percent to score a record closing peak, while the Dow rose 0.49 percent and the Nasdaq 1.01 percent.
Microsoft Corp climbed 2.46 percent after winning the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, beating out Amazon.com Inc.
Google parent Alphabet Inc slipped in late NY trade after missing analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit even though revenue growth topped expectations.
The embrace of risk left bonds out in the cold, and yields on two-year Treasury notes hit four-week highs at 1.667 percent.
Bond investors are still looking forward to a likely rate cut from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, though they also suspect officials might sound cautious on moving yet further. — Reuters
