Asian Stocks Rally on ECB Negative Rate Option

Asian stocks rose for the first time in three days after U.S. jobless claims reached a five-year low and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers have an open mind about a negative deposit rate. Copper led gains by industrial metals.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index climbed 0.3 percent at 10:24 a.m. in Sydney. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 0.7 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed, after the gauge closed at a record high. Japan’s markets are shut for a holiday. Copper rose 0.7 percent.

The unexpected drop in American jobless claims eased concern about the labor market before a government report today that is forecast to show the unemployment rate held at 7.6 percent. The ECB cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low and Draghi signaled another reduction is possible, a day after the Federal Reserve maintained its bond-buying plan and said it may make changes to the size of purchases if needed.

Bloomberg

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Mingze Wu

Mingze Wu

Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Based in Singapore, Mingze Wu focuses on trading strategies and technical and fundamental analysis of major currency pairs. He has extensive trading experience across different asset classes and is well-versed in global market fundamentals. In addition to contributing articles to MarketPulseFX, Mingze centers on forex and macro-economic trends impacting the Asia Pacific region.
Mingze Wu