SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific shares were mixed on Tuesday as vaccine hopes once again lifted Wall Street to record highs. Airline stocks got a boost.
Mainland Chinese stocks were subdued in early trade. The Shanghai composite was below the flatline, while the Shenzhen component edged down 0.27%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was flat, after touching a 52-week high on Monday. The Topix declined 0.35%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.38%. The bourse resumed trading on Tuesday after a nearly full-day trading halt Monday that it said was due to a software issue which created “inaccurate market data.”
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.23%. Over in Singapore, the Straits Times index jumped nearly 1%. The country reported non-oil domestic exports that were far off expectations, falling 3.1% year-on-year, as compared to forecasts of a 5.7% rise, according to Reuters.
Overall, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.26%.
Wall Street was buoyed to record highs after Moderna said preliminary phase three trial data shows its coronavirus vaccine is more than 94% effective in preventing Covid-19.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 470.63 points, or 1.6%, to close at 29,950.44. The 30-stock Dow logged intraday and closing record highs. The S&P 500 climbed 1.2% to 3,626.91, posting an all-time closing high. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8% to 11,924.13.
That came after Pfizer and BioNTech announced last week that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective.
“Equity markets focused on the improving medium‑term growth implications, which appear to be brightening from H2 2021 onwards. Yet the current virus surge is stifling near-term growth prospects,” cautioned Felicity Emmett, a senior economist at ANZ, in a Tuesday note.
Outbreaks in the U.S. are still spiking, as the country added 1 million new cases of the virus in under a week. The country has now recorded more than 11 million Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Airline stocks jump
Oil continues rising, copper prices hit a high
Oil prices edged up in the morning of Asia hours after jumping 3% on Monday on the back of positive vaccine news. U.S. crude futures rose 0.44% to $41.52 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude futures were up 0.52% to $44.05 per barrel.
Oil stocks in Australia, too, jumped in the morning. Santos rose 3.41%, Oil Search surged 4.79%, and Beach Energy rocketed 4.81%.
Meanwhile, copper prices hit a 29-month high on Monday, according to Reuters. That reflected optimism around demand in China after the country reported better-than-expected factory output in October.
