STOCKS, OIL RISE IN ASIA AFTER WALL STREET’S HOT RUN

Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, after a record-setting day on Wall Street, while Bitcoin paused for breath after an overnight endorsement from Tesla Inc. sent the cryptocurrency up 20%.

Oil also hit 13-month highs, helped by rising optimism about a return in fuel demand, Alun John and David Henry reported for Reuters.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.32 % at 721.53 after climbing as high as 730.16 late last month. Korea was an early riser, up 0.92% while Chinese blue chips rose 0.49% and Hong Kong nudged up 0.24%. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 was up 0.36% and e-mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.5%.

The early action came after another day of so-called reflation trades around the world, in which global markets bid up stocks, oil and gold while US Treasury yields held near 11-month highs.

Wall Street reached all-time closing highs on Monday as the Nasdaq Composite added nearly 1% and the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 0.75%. In more volatile cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin briefly passed $47,000 for the first time, a 20% rise, before paring gains. It was last at $45,669.

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