Asian stocks pose mixed picture towards the end of the year

Wall Street showed amazing hikes in stock prices on Wednesday and now Asian stocks seem to be a bit volatile – showing a mixed trend with some surging upwards while others declining. Chinese stocks showed increases in the early session on Thursday but the trend remained weak. The Shanghai composite dropped minimally on Thursday as the Shenzhen composite mirrored the same trend. However, Hong Kong stocks were a bit brighter with a 1.18% increase at the end of the trading session. On the other hand, Tencent, China’s tech biggie recorded positive moves with a 1.9% surge on Thursday. Samsung was also seen celebrating in the stock market with a 1.99% increase while the Kospi in South Korea showed an upward trend with a 0.29% push.

An Insight Into The Asian Stock Markets

Being a high potential market, Japan may have been expected to note gains on Thursday, however, the Nikkei 225 index posted a 0.36% decline. Fast Retailing also printed a significant loss of 2.01% on Thursday. In fact, the country’s retail quotient was much lower than expected.  A full 2.1% decrease was noted in retail sales in November in comparison to 2018. The market forecast was for no more than a 1.7% decline but in retrospect, an increase in sales tax may have resulted in the larger than anticipated decline in retail sales. On the contrary, Australia extended its positive trend after Christmas and of course- Boxing Day- the big shopping splurge, and was reported to have closed 0.4% higher on Thursday.

Update From The Wall Street

Wall Street has painted quite a happy picture with the Dow Jones Industrial Average scaling 105.94 points and the S&P 500 gaining by 0.51%. The Nasdaq Composite also touched an unprecedented peak topping 9,000 and hit 9,022.39 mark. The record highs in all three primary indices of Wall Street tipped investors’ spirits to ultra-positive. Another good news for the US trade indices remained the optimism surrounding the trade agreement between China and the United States. The agreement, drafted and finalized in early December is to be signed in January. Although China was a little less happy about the new agreement compared to its partner, the U.S. is rather ecstatic about the deal. However, the recent statement made by the Chinese Commerce Minister has confirmed that there probably won’t be any further negotiation on the deal and it indeed is to be signed in the coming month. There is a bit of curiosity regarding what the deal contains and no proper details have been revealed yet. While most of the public is busy in the holiday season, questions are expected to rise in the upcoming weeks.