Asia Stocks Cheered by China Trade Surprise

Asian shares made their first real rally of the year on Wednesday after Chinese data trade data beat expectations, offering a rare shaft of light for the global economy.

Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.6 percent from a near-one-year trough, while battered Australian stocks gained 1.3 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan sped ahead by 1.6 percent and away from its lowest since late 2011.

Even China’s mercurial markets found some relief with the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.8 percent and the CSI300 index 0.9 percent.

The good cheer spread to E-mini futures contracts for the S&P 500 which climbed 0.8 percent.

The gains came after China reported its exports had risen 2.3 percent in yuan-denominated terms in December, from a year earlier while imports dipped 4.0 percent.

In U.S. dollar terms, China’s December exports exceeded analyst expectations, falling 1.4 pct from a year earlier, while imports fell by 7.6 percent. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected exports to fall 8.0 percent and imports to fall 11.5 percent.

Reuters

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Former Craig

Former Craig

Former Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.