Asian stocks extend rally on Gulf breakthrough hopes

HONG KONG: Asian stocks joined a global rally on Friday on hopes a Middle East peace deal may finally materialise, while the dollar and bond yields dropped and oil prices fell to two-month lows, tempering inflation fears.

All eyes are on the hotly-awaited market debut of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has made history with the biggest-ever initial public offering. The IPO raised a record US$75 billion, valuing the rocket and spacecraft manufacturer at US$1.77 trillion and making Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a peace deal could be signed as soon as this weekend, hours after threatening more strikes on Iran. He said negotiations with Tehran had advanced to the highest levels of Iran’s leadership and had been approved by a broad coalition of regional powers.

Trump’s remarks follow repeated bouts of optimism from the president that have failed to yield a deal, rattling market sentiment.

Nonetheless, “This does look perhaps a bit more tangible than we have had,” said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at the National Australia Bank.

“If we hear something from Iran that sounds positive, the odds (of a peace deal) are clearly going to flip quite dramatically.”

The deal, if confirmed, would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough yet to end the three-month-old war, which has sent global energy prices sharply higher. The European Central Bank had to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly three years to nip war-driven inflation in the bud.

Oil prices slumped to two-month lows on the news of an agreement. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 1.9% to US$86.08 a barrel, on top of a 2.6% drop overnight. Brent dropped 1.5% at US$89.08 per barrel, having fallen nearly 3% overnight.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 4.3%, while Australia’s resources-heavy shares climbed 1.8%. South Korea’s Kospi surged 8.3%.

Overnight, Wall Street rallied with the three major indexes registering their biggest daily gains since April 8 when the US and Iran agreed to a temporary ceasefire. The Nasdaq jumped 2.5%, helped by expectations of a strong market debut of Musk’s SpaceX.

Data showed that US producer prices increased more than expected in May, leading to the largest annual gain in 3-1/2 years as the Middle East conflict drove up energy prices. On the labour market front, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased marginally last week, pointing to continued labor market resilience in early June.

Treasuries gained as hopes of a peace deal in the Gulf led markets to trim bets of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. Pricing for a hike in October has come back to 36% from 51%.

Two-year Treasury yields were steady at 4.066% on Friday, having slumped 6 basis points overnight. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yields held at 4.4631%, after falling almost 8 bps overnight.

The dollar nursed losses on lower yields. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against its major peers, held at 99.78, having lost 0.4% overnight.

It edged up 0.1% to ¥160.19, after retreating 0.4% on the prior session. Traders are still on high alert for any intervention from Japanese authorities as the yen stays below the critical 160 level.

Precious metals caught some relief from the lower dollar. Spot gold rose 0.2% to US$4,222 an ounce, following a 3.5% jump overnight, while spot silver rose 0.3% to US$67.52 an ounce, after a 5.8% gain.