Asia shares extend tech rally, yen under pressure
While Asian stock markets climbed on the back of tech-led gains on Wall Street, the yen remained at all-time lows against the euro and Swiss franc as higher interest rates at home did nothing to deter speculative sellers.
Turnover was sparse in a holiday-shortened week for much of the world, but the path of least resistance was higher ahead of forecast delayed data showing the US economy continued to grow strongly in the third quarter.
Median forecasts are for annual growth of 3.2 percent, due in part to a sharp decline following increased imports earlier in the year before tariffs were introduced.
Japan’s Nikkei index rose 1.5 percent on Monday morning, extending Friday’s rise as a sharp decline in the yen promised to boost export revenues for Japanese companies.
The yen’s selloff came as the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to a 30-year high of 0.75 percent, putting heavy selling pressure on government debt.
Minutes of the BOJ meeting will be released on Wednesday and the central bank governor will speak to the Japanese business lobby on Christmas Day.
The yen reached new records at 184.90 against the euro and 198.08 against the Swiss franc.
The dollar rose to 157.67 yen, but investors were wary of testing the November peak of 157.90, lest it trigger Tokyo’s intervention. Japan’s chief currency official signaled concerns about one-way movements and warned of taking appropriate measures against excessive decline.
The dollar remained stable against other currencies at 98.725, gaining 0.3 percent on Friday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 percent, while South Korea rose 1.8 percent on optimism about AI-related gains.
Analysts at TD Securities noted that equity markets posted record weekly inflows of $98 billion last week, led by U.S. stock funds.
China stock funds saw their third-biggest weekly inflows of 2025, while emerging markets saw their biggest inflows since April.
However, flows into bonds slowed for the fourth consecutive week. Japan’s 10-year bond yields rose another 2.5 basis points, reaching its highest level since 1999, while US 10-year bond yields rose to 4.157 percent.
Silver was once again the star of commodities, hitting a new record at US$67.48 per ounce, bringing the gain for the year to almost 134 percent.
Gold rose 0.6 percent to $4,362 per ounce during the day.
Oil prices rose after the United States intercepted a Venezuelan oil tanker over the weekend and is pursuing another operation that would be the third such operation in less than two weeks.
While Brent increased by 0.7 percent to $60.88 per barrel, US crude oil increased by 0.7 percent to $56.89 per barrel.
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