WALL Street stocks pushed higher on Monday to begin a holiday-shortened trading week, while oil prices rallied amid worsening tensions between the United States and Venezuela.
Gold and silver also struck fresh record highs, as the United States pushed on with its Venezuela oil blockade.
US market watchers are expecting a low-key week, with equity markets closing early Wednesday and all day Thursday for the Christmas holiday, a dynamic expected to result in light trading volumes.
“US stock indices continue to power ahead in what some describe as the long-awaited traditional ‘Santa rally’,” said Axel Rudolph, an analyst at IG trading platform.
All three major US indices finished solidly higher after spending the entire day in positive territory. The broad-based S&P 500 closed up 0.6 per cent.
Interactive Brokers’ Steve Sosnick predicted stocks would drift higher in the absence of major trading catalysts.
“Barring any outside shocks, this kind of pattern is likely to prevail until the end of the year,” Sosnick said.
Most leading tech names advanced in New York.
Tech firms also led the rally in Asia, with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, Taiwan’s TSMC and Japan’s Renesas among the best performers.
Tokyo was the standout, piling on 1.8 per cent thanks to a weaker yen.
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangkok, Wellington, Taipei and Manila stock markets all saw healthy advances.
However, in Europe both London and Paris fell, while Frankfurt ended the day flat.
Gold, which benefits from expectations of lower US interest rates, hit a fresh record of US$4,442.19, while silver also struck a new peak.
The precious metals, which are go-to assets in times of crisis, also benefited from geopolitical worries as Washington steps up its oil blockade against Venezuela and after Ukraine hit a tanker from Russia’s shadow fleet in the Mediterranean.
Oil prices rose more than two per cent amid the geopolitical tensions.
Forex traders are keeping tabs on Tokyo after Japan’s top currency official said he was concerned about the yen’s recent weakness, which came after the central bank hiked interest rates to a 30-year high on Friday.
The comments stoked speculation that officials could intervene in currency markets to support the yen, which fell more than one percent against the dollar Friday after bank boss Kazuo Ueda chose not to signal more rate increases early in the new year.
Meanwhile, Oracle tech tycoon Larry Ellison offered a US$40.4 billion personal guarantee to back Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, deepening a bidding war with Netflix.
Shares in Paramount jumped 4.3 per cent and those in Warner Bros. Discovery rose 3.5 per cent. Shares in Netflix slid 1.2 per cent. AFP
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