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.

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23 November 2016

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.