Asia stocks share some Wall St joy, U.S. yields a burden
EghtesadOnline: Asian stocks bounced to one-week highs on Wednesday as investors tried to share in the exuberance of Wall Street's record run, while high U.S. bond yields kept the dollar well underpinned.
Australia's main index led the action with a rise of 0.9 percent to a one-month top, helped by strength in bulk commodity prices. China's blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 advanced 0.6 percent to a near 11-month peak.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 was closed for a holiday after enjoying a five-session winning streak that took it to the highest finish since January, according to ILNA.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS also added 0.6 percent, edging further away from four-month lows hit on Monday.
Emerging market shares have struggled in recent days as surging U.S. bond yields sucked much-needed capital out of Asia. President-elect Donald Trump's past talk of trade tariffs has also weighed on sentiment in the export-intensive region.
Analysts at JPMorgan said Trump's latest pledge to dump the Trans-Pacific Partnership was already priced into markets.
"What may not be factored in is the possibility of follow-through on other, more protectionist campaign proposals," they wrote in a note to clients.
"We remain concerned about this as a source of downside risk, delivering a negative surprise to markets which so far appear to be enamoured of his emphasis on fiscal stimulus and deregulation since the election."
That love-affair was evident on Wall Street where the Dow .DJI closed up 0.35 percent and above 19,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.22 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC 0.33 percent.
Still, the market is starting to look expensive with the S&P 500 trading near 17.3 times forward 12-month earnings, compared to the 10-year median of 14.7, according to StarMine data.