A gong is displayed on an electronic screen at the Exchange Square complex that houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, China, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Paul Yong | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Japan’s Nikkei stock average hit a record high on Thursday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, amid broad gains in Asian markets as hopes for a U.S.-Iran deal grow.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.19%, falling short of its previous gains after hitting a record high, supported by technology and consumer cyclical stocks. Daikin Industries became a top performer after activist investor Elliott Investment Management encouraged the company to improve its performance and narrow its valuation gap with peers. TOPIX rose 1.33%.
Stocks rose this week on the possibility of a peace deal between the US and Iran. of S&P500fully recovered from losses from the Iran war on Monday, but rose 3% this week. of Nasdaq and DowOn the other hand, they added about 5% and over 1% respectively.
President Donald Trump said in a Fox Business interview aired Wednesday that the Iran war is “very close to being over” and reiterated that Iran “very much wants to get a deal.”
A White House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of negotiations is under discussion between Washington and Iran. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the administration’s plans, said nothing was officially planned yet.
Oil prices were volatile in Thursday trading. of west texas intermediate As of 11:46 p.m. ET, the price was up 0.39% at $91.65 per barrel. international benchmark brent crude oil It was flat at $94.96 per barrel.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.96%, and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.36%. India’s Nifty 50 rose 0.56%.
australian S&P/ASX 200 It fell by 0.32%. Australian employment rose 1.4% in March compared to the same month last year, with the unemployment rate flat at 4.3%, according to labor figures released on Thursday.
Mainland China’s CSI300 index rose 0.90%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index extended its early gains to rise 1.41%.
China’s economy accelerated in the first quarter on strong export growth, which offset sluggish domestic demand, even as the energy shock from the Iran war threatened global demand, clouding the growth outlook.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5% in the three months to March, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday, accelerating from 4.5% in the previous quarter and beating the 4.8% growth expected by economists polled by Reuters.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were both trading near flat. Futures, which track the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 45 points, or 0.1%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.80% to end at 7,022.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.59% to $24,016.02, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 72.27 points, or 0.15%, to close at 48,463.72.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 both closed at record highs, with the tech-heavy index snapping an 11-day winning streak and the market-wide benchmark posting its 10th positive trade in 11.
—CNBC’s Anniek Bao, Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.
