BLBG: Commodities Rise as U.S. Job Data Boost Recovery View
By Rocky Swift and Matthew Brown
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks, U.S. stock index futures and commodities rose as economic reports boosted investor optimism that demand in the world’s largest economy is recovering.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index closed at the highest level in more than 19 months, driven by gains in Japan. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and New Zealand were shut for holidays. Oil advanced, while copper moved to a 20-month high. Malaysia’s ringgit rose to the strongest since July 2008 after the government said exports increased for a third-straight month. Markets across Europe are closed for the Easter holiday.
U.S. payrolls gained last month by the most in three years, a “solid report” indicating “the economy is now creating jobs,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in a Bloomberg Television interview. A private report today may show U.S. service industries expanded for a third month.
“Overall, we are seeing positive signs about the global economy,” said Hiroaki Muto, a senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., which manages $111 billion. “While developing nations are leading global growth, they are waiting for the U.S. to rebound. Recent reports are suggesting that the U.S. labor market and consumer spending are improving.”
Standard & Poor’s 500 futures increased 0.3 percent to 1176.8 as of 6:48 a.m. in New York, after earlier gaining as much as 0.6 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index closed at 126.9, the highest closing since Aug. 12 2008. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.5 percent.
Apple’s iPad
Apple Inc. was little changed at $235.90 in pre-market New York trading after the company probably sold more than twice as many iPads in its debut weekend than some analysts had estimated. Initial sales may have reached 700,000 units, Piper Jaffray & Co.’s Gene Munster said in an interview yesterday. The Minneapolis-based analyst had predicted sales of 200,000 to 300,000, while Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s Toni Sacconaghi had projected 300,000 to 400,000.
Canon Inc., which gets 28 percent of its revenue in the Americas, climbed 2.5 percent to 4,510 yen. Toyota Motor Corp., which derives 31 percent of its revenue in North America, increased 1.1 percent to 3,815 yen.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week” that the chances the U.S. economy will retrench after recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s “have fallen very significantly in the last two months.”
‘Increasing Optimisim’
“There is increasing growth optimism now given that the job situation in the U.S. is getting a little more relaxed,” said Roger Groebli, Singapore-based head of financial-market analysis at LG Capital Management, part of the group that oversees $84 billion. “Exporters will benefit from that.”
Samsung Electronics Co. rose 1.5 percent to 870,000 won after Maeil Business Newspaper said the company will add a new semiconductor chip line. Asia’s biggest chipmaker also rose after the price of the benchmark DDR2 dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chip rose on April 2, ending a four-day decline, according to Dramexchange Technology Inc. Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-largest computer-memory chipmaker, advanced 3.4 percent to 29,100 won.
Malaysia’s ringgit climbed to its strongest level since July 2008 after the government said exports increased 18.4 percent in February from a year earlier.
“The economic recovery theme is attracting foreigners to ringgit assets,” said Tan Voon Ching, a foreign-exchange trader at OSK Investment Bank Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “There’s a lot of confidence in the economic outlook for this year.”
Ringgit Gains
The ringgit strengthened 0.6 percent to 3.2301. The won added 0.3 percent to 1,123.05 per dollar in Seoul, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It reached 1,122.15 on April 2, the strongest level since Jan. 19.
Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index rose 0.4 percent, advancing for a 10th day, set for the longest winning streak in almost 16 years. CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., Malaysia’s second- biggest bank, climbed 1.1 percent to a record. The company said the size of its initial share sale for its dual listing on the Thai exchange has been raised to as much as 50 million shares from 35 million.
Indonesia’s benchmark stock index, Asia’s best-performing major market this year, climbed to a record on expectations the central bank will keep interest rates at a record low tomorrow, helping to boost the economy.
Jakarta Rally
PT Astra International, the nation’s largest auto retailer, surged 4.9 percent. PT Bank Central Asia advanced 5.5 percent, the most in more than two weeks, leading gains among banks. The central bank will keep its key interest rate at 6.5 percent tomorrow after inflation slowed to 3.43 percent in March, according to 16 out of 17 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
The Jakarta Composite index jumped 2 percent to 2,887.25, set to breach its previous record close of 2,830.26 on Jan. 9, 2008. The measure has climbed 14 percent this year as the central bank raised its economic growth forecast and Standard & Poor’s upgraded the nation’s sovereign debt ratings.
The yen snapped four days of losses against the dollar, on speculation Japanese exporters bought the nation’s currency after it touched a seven-month low. The pound gained versus all major counterparts after polls eased concerns that political turmoil will derail the nation’s economic recovery.
The yen climbed to 94.5 per dollar from 94.61 in New York on April 2. It strengthened to 127.32 per euro from 127.75. The dollar gained to $1.3473 per euro from $1.3504 last week.
Pound Strengthens
The pound rallied after a YouGov Plc poll for the Sunday Times showed that the opposition Conservative Party holds a 10 percent lead over Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party, before elections that are likely to be held next month. The Conservatives have 39 percent of the vote, while Labour had 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats 20 percent, the survey showed, reducing the likelihood that they will fail to win the parliamentary majority that some think is necessary to tackle the U.K.’s budget deficit, the largest in the Group of 20 nations. The pound strengthened 0.2 percent to $1.5234.
A survey for the Sunday Express newspaper by Canadian pollsters Angus Reid put the Conservatives at 38 percent, 11 points ahead of Labour’s 27 percent, with the Liberal Democrats at 20 percent.
“The polls seem to suggest that the U.K. political situation is gradually heading toward stabilization,” said Toshiya Yamauchi, senior currency analyst in Tokyo at online currency trading company Ueda Harlow Ltd. “Signs of political stabilization, combined by waning expectations for additional quantitative monetary measures amid the plethora of positive data, will support the currency.”
Oil Advances
Crude oil for May delivery rose as much as 1.2 percent to $85.89 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Oct. 9, 2008. It pared gains to trade at $85.35.
“Economic data indexes are getting better and that is supporting crude oil prices,” said Ken Hasegawa, energy trading manager at broker Newedge in Tokyo. “Still, we need time to see quite a strong economic recovery” and prices may struggle above $87 without further evidence of growth, he said.
Oil prices have established a floor of $75 a barrel and there is no need for OPEC to increase production, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said April 2. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil and slashed output in January 2009 to prevent a glut. The group left its production targets unchanged when ministers met in Vienna on March 17.
Venezuela, the group’s sixth-largest producer, is seeking a price band between $80 and $100 a barrel, Ramirez told reporters in Caracas on April 2.
Copper for May delivery advanced as much as 1.2 percent to $7,885 a ton in New York, the highest level for the most active contract since Aug. 1, 2008.
To contact the reporters for this story: Matthew Brown in London at mbrown42@bloomberg.net; Rocky Swift in Tokyo at rswift5@bloomberg.net
