Asian stocks moved near their 3-year highs, Friday (6/11) morning

ILLUSTRATION. Asian Exchange

Source: Reuters | Editor: Yudho Winarto |

KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. Asian stock markets held near three-year highs on Friday (6/11) morning. Meanwhile, the United States (US) dollar remains sluggish and the fragmented US legislative perspective dims the possibility of major policy changes, raising interest in risk instruments.

Leaving aside the uncertainty of the US presidential election, investors overnight glanced at riskier assets such as the Australian dollar, which surged to a six-week high before experiencing profit-taking in early Asian trade.

Even gold, another safe-haven asset, rallied overnight as investors waited for the announcement of the US election results as a precursor to more fiscal stimulus in the world’s largest economy.

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Launch Reuters, the Australian stock exchange surged 0.7% and the MSCI Asia-Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.22% to levels last seen in February 2018. But as a sign the gains may be limited, Japan’s Nikkei index futures market fell 0.2%.

Democrat Joe Biden is getting closer to winning over US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, it led by a narrow margin in several states.

While it is unclear who will emerge victorious in the presidential election, analysts say more US fiscal stimulus is being prepared, regardless of the election result.

“We still anticipate that there will be a fiscal package of more than US $ 1 trillion next year,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING Group.

“This stimulus, when combined with the long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine, can really lift the economy and boost growth. As a result, we remain optimistic about the prospects for 2021 and 2022.”

Analysts increasingly hope the US legislature will split, with Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, while Republicans retain control of the Senate.

The mood of optimism impacted the dollar, which was sluggish at 92.530 against a basket of six currencies after hitting a two-week low overnight.

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The US dollar was also weighed down by the stance by the Federal Reserve on Thursday to keep its monetary policy loose and do whatever it takes to sustain an unstable US economic recovery.

The dollar’s weakness supported the Japanese yen, which rose to near an eight-month high of 103.43 yen against the dollar overnight. Steady early Asian trade at 103.52 yen.

Gold, which is in limited supply and seen as a hedge against inflation in an era of very loose monetary and fiscal policy, strengthened at US $ 1,949.0599 an ounce troi after surging more than 2% overnight.