Asia Morning Sep 28

On Friday, U.S. stocks advanced further. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 358 points (+1.34%) to 27174, the S&P 500 gained 51 points (+1.60%) to 3298, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 254 points (+2.34%) to 11151.


S&P 500 Index: Daily Chart


Sources: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Investors are watching closely a potential COVID-19 stimulus package being discussed by the government and Democrat lawmakers.

Technology Hardware & Equipment (+3.31%), Health Care Equipment & Services (+2.33%) and Commercial & Professional Services (+2.12%) sectors performed the best. Cruise stocks such as Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH +13.23%), Carnival (CCL +9.28%) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL +7.49%) were top gainers. Boeing (BA +6.5%) also closed higher.  

Shares of technology giants - Apple (AAPL +3.75%), Amazon.com (AMZN +2.49) and Tesla (TSLA +5.04%) - also post gains.

Approximately 55% (54% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average and 9% (8% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

U.S. official data showed that Durable Goods Orders (preliminary reading) rose 0.4% on month in August (+1.5% expected).

European stocks closed mixed. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index edged down 0.10%, Germany's DAX 30 dropped 1.08%, France's CAC 40 slipped 0.69%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.34%. 

U.S. Treasury prices were steady, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield edged lower to 0.658%.

Spot gold fell $6.00 to $1,861 an ounce.

U.S. WTI crude oil futures (November) ticked lower to $40.25 a barrel.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar strengthened against other major currencies as the ICE Dollar Index stayed at a two-month high of 94.58.

EUR/USD dropped 0.35% to 1.1632. Concerns were caused by resurging virus cases in Europe. Spain's government has urged Madrid to lock down the entire city. Italy reported the most daily cases since May 1. 

GBP/USD was stable at 1.2747. Meanwhile, the U.K. government has added London to its watch list of potential pandemic hot spots.

USD/JPY added 0.16% to 105.58.

Commodity-linked currencies were broadly lower. AUD/USD dropped 0.16% to 0.7035 extending its losing streak to a sixth session. USD/CAD climbed 0.20% to 1.3388.