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Asia Stocks Take a Roller-Coaster Ride
Shanghai equities turn negative for the year
By Gregor Stuart Hunter
Updated Feb. 8, 2018 1:48 a.m. ET
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Volatility continued to plague Asian markets Thursday, with the Chinese yuan weakening by the most since August 2015 and investors grappling with the global selloff in the past week.
The U.S. dollar was recently around 6.3250 yuan, up nearly 1% versus the end of onshore trading Wednesday. The increase was the most since the People’s Bank of China unexpectedly shifted the yuan to a market-determined exchange rate, prompting volatility in global markets.
The yuan’s slide coincided with the release of Chinese trade data just before midday, which showed the country’s trade surplus narrowed sharply in January as imports surged.
Separately, media reports citing unnamed sources said Beijing may ease capital controls to allow more investment in foreign funds.
While analysts reiterated that Chinese economic numbers are distorted at the start of each year by the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday, the trade reading “indicates domestic demand remains healthy going into 2018,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics. That includes still-robust export growth last month, “indicating steady global demand momentum,” he added.
A man walks past an electronic stock indicator in Tokyo. Photo: kazuhiro nogi/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average ended 1.1% higher, after surrendering most of its morning gains earlier in the session.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also got a lift in afternoon trade, rising 0.6% after losing its morning gains before the midday break.
Indexes in South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Singapore also fluctuated between gains and losses Thursday.
But Shanghai’s stock benchmark didn’t bounce back after the lunch break, falling 1.7% ahead of the closing bell as Chinese large caps fell amid a rebound in smaller names, which have badly trailed to start 2018. The Shanghai Composite Index joined most other Asian indexes in negative territory.
S&P 500 futures were recently up 0.2% after trading lower earlier in Asian trading.
The volatility in the past week was inevitable, given the lull that
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had preceded it, said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia at J.P. Morgan Funds.
“I’m surprised that people were surprised,” he said, adding that the past week’s stock pullback was “somewhat overdue.” Mr. Hui is recommending that clients buy stocks in expectation of further gains.
Other analysts had a more tempered opinion.
“We think that it is too soon to sound the all-clear,” Capital Economics said in a research note. “Our expectation is that unbridled optimism will give way to growing pessimism as it becomes clear that the U.S. economy will slow in response to tighter Fed policy and fading fiscal stimulus.”
In other Asian economic news, Japan reported its biggest current-account surplus since 2007 for last year. The dollar, which was little moved in morning trading, was recently up 0.3% at ¥109.65.
New Zealand’s dollar fell 0.6% to a one-month low against the U.S. currency, even as the country’s central bank met expectations by standing pat on interest rates, as some viewed the policy statement to be slightly dovish.
The Brent global oil benchmark was recently down 0.2%, after the crude market logged its biggest drop on two months on Wednesday following data that showed the average daily oil output in the U.S. hit record highs last week.
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