Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
The financial markets in the Asian and Pacific Rim were broadly higher Friday by lunchtime. Asian traders shrugged off news that China’s first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 6.8 percent.
In Japan, the headline Nikkei 225 was up over 2.4 percent. Shares of Fast Retailing jumped four percent as did shares of Softbank. The broader Topix index, in Tokyo, was up over 1.24 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose over 2.25 percent and in South Korea, the Kospi composite index jumped over three percent The Kosdaq added 1.35 percent.
Elsewhere in the Asian and Pacific Rim, the Australian S&P ASX 200 was up over 2.4 percent.
On the mainland, in China, the Shanghai composite rose 0.88 percent and the smaller Shenzhen composite was up 0.99 percent by lunchtime.
Asian Traders Shrug off News that China’s GDP Contracted in Q1
Regional traders in Asia had already priced in and expected the world’s second largest economy, China, would see their gross domestic product contracting on the first quarter of the year.
Their economy shrank by 6.8 percent compared to a year ago. This is according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
This is the first quarterly decline of the Chinese economy since 1992. The markets had expected their economy to shrink by 6.5 percent after growing by six percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Traders React to the Reopening of the U.S. Economy
Overnight, President Donald Trump rolled out a three phase process to reopen the world’s largest economy. The U.S. plans to slowly end the lockdowns in place that were used to contain the pandemic. The Covid-19 outbreak killed nearly 32,000 Americans and 140,000 around the world.
Other countries, like Germany, Italy and Israel are also relaxing restrictions, to gradually reopen their economies, that have been hit hard by the coronavirus viral outbreak.
