Stock markets in Asia and the Pacific were positive in the last session of the central week of August, thanks to recent reassuring US data on inflation, benefit requests and retail sales. Tokyo gained 3.64%, Taiwan 2.07%, Seoul 1.99% and Sydney 1.34%. Still open are Hong Kong (+1.9%), Shanghai (unchanged), Mumbai (+0.98%) and Singapore (+1.05%). Futures on Europe were positive, apart from London after retail sales fell short of estimates. Contracts on US stock exchanges also rose, awaiting the Dallas Fed indices. The dollar fell to 0.91 euros, 14.93 yen and 0.77 pounds, while the spread between the 10-year BTP and German Bund rose to 137 points, with the Italian annual yield down 2 points to 3.6% and the German one down 1.8 points to 2.24%. Crude oil falls (Wti -0.5% to 77.77 dollars per barrel) after the unexpected rise in US stocks to 1.35 billion barrels, compared to an expected fall of 1.9 billion barrels. Natural gas rises (+0.35% to 39.74 euros per MWh in Amsterdam) while gold appears flat (-0.08% to 2,455.05 dollars per ounce). On the Tokyo market, strong increases for the semiconductor sector, with Renesas (+7.47%), Advantest (83%) and Tokyo Electron (+4.83%). The auto sector is also up, from Toyota (+3.27%) to Honda (+2.42%), while in the financial field, Nomura (+4.5%) is rising to its 5th consecutive increase.
