INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
SINGAPORE: Asian stock markets made a cautious start on Thursday following two days of rallies, as investors await the passage and details
of a $2 trillion stimulus package in the United States to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
Senate leaders hope to vote on
the plan later on Wednesday in Washington, but it still faces criticism
The bill includes a $500 billion fund to help hard-hit industries and a comparable amount for payments up to $3,000 to millions of US
families.
It cannot come soon enough, with potentially enormous weekly US initial jobless claims to appear in data due at 1230
GMT.
Australia's S-P/ASX 200 index rose 1.5 per cent in early trade - its third positive start in as many sessions, but also its most
Japan's Nikkei fell 2.2 per cent.
Hong Kong futures were 1 per cent higher and China A50 futures were up 0.2 per cent
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 per cent.
"There has been so much stimulus thrown at this," said Jun
Bei Liu, portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners in Sydney.
"But the positivity related to it is really just sentiment," she said,
adding that investors were largely flying blind with so many companies withdrawing earnings guidance
Jobless figures may offer a "reality check," she said.
In perhaps an early sign of the fragile mood, the risk-sensitive Australian dollar
dropped 1 per cent and the safe-haven Japanese yen rose in morning trade.
US stock futures rose 1 per cent, following the first back-to-back
session rises on Wall Street in over a month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.4 per cent and the S-P 500 1.2 per cent, while the
Nasdaq Composite dropped half a percent following a Nikkei report that Apple was weighing a delay in the launch of its 5G iPhone.
JOBLESS
CLAIMS TO TEST BOUNCEThe money at stake in the stimulus bill amounts to nearly half of the $4.7 trillion the US government spends
annually.
But it also comes against a backdrop of bad news as the coronavirus spreads and as jobless claims are set to soar, with both
expected to test the nascent bounce in markets this week.
California Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters on Wednesday that a million
Californians had already applied for jobless benefits this month - a number that knocked stocks from session highs and has analysts bracing
for worse to come.
RBC Capital Markets economists had expected a national figure over 1 million in Thursday's data, but say "it is now
poised to be many multiples of that," as reduced hours across the country drive deep layoffs.
"Something in the 5-10 million range for
initial jobless claims is quite likely," they wrote in a note.
That compares to a 695,000 peak in 1982
Forecasts in a Reuters poll range from a minimum of 250,000 initial claims, all the way up to 4 million.
Trepidation seemed to put a halt on
the US dollar's recent softness in currency markets, with the dollar ahead 1 per cent against the Antipodean currencies and up 0.6 per
cent against the pound.
It slipped 0.3 per cent to 110.85 yen.
US crude slipped 1.5 per cent to $24.11 per barrel and gold steadied at