Chinese Stocks Demonstrated Their Strength on Friday
Stocks in Asia-Pacific benefited from U.S. stocks. They rose on Friday following overnight gains on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 gained 1.7% to 4,438.26 in its biggest jump since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 534.75 points or 1.6% to 34,912.56. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7% to 14,823.43.
They are now on course to close the week higher, with the S&P 500 and the Dow roughly 2% off their record highs. When it comes to the Nasdaq Composite it is about 4% behind.
On Thursday morning, eight members of the S&P 500 reported earnings and all eight surpassed earnings-per-share expectations from Wall Street.
Interestingly, Walgreens Boots Alliance was the top performer in the Dow as well as S&P. It jumped 7.4% after the company earnings expectations. The company announced it would become majority owner of primary-care company VillageMD with a $5.2 billion investment as well as make health care its growth engine.
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America saw their shares rise 2.5%, 0.8%, as well as 4.5% respectively. Shares of Wells Fargo dropped 1.6% despite an earnings beat.
In the meantime, falling rates boosted technology stocks. Big tech stocks Apple, Google-parent Alphabet, and Microsoft each gained at least 2%, providing the market with support.
Stocks in Asia-Pacific
In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 2.4% to end its trading day at 16,781.19, leading gains among the region’s major markets as shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) rose 4.71% following an earnings release a day earlier.
On Thursday, the company reported a net profit of 156.3 billion Taiwan dollars (around $5.57 billion) for the third quarter. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company surpassed expectations, as analysts expected its net profit to reach 149 billion Taiwan dollars.
Hong Kong’s Hong Song index was 1.17% higher, as of its final hour of trading. On Friday, Hong Kong stocks returned to trade after stock markets in the city were closed for two days.
Mainland Chinese stocks rose on Friday, with the Shanghai composite up 0.4% to 3,572.37. The Shenzhen component added 0.52% to 14,415.99.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.81% to close at 29,068.63. The Topix index gained 1.86% to finish the trading day at 2,023.93. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.88% to close at 3,015.06.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.69% to 7,362. Shares of flag carrier Qantas Airways rose 1.97% thanks to the government’s decision. The government of New South Wales announced that quarantine requirements will be scrapped for fully vaccinated international travelers from November 1.
