Market update: volatile trading session in Japan upper most in investors’ minds – 24.05.2013

Source: Henderson Global Investors

Wall Street stocks had a better day on Thursday helped in part by soothing comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials that the Fed will not go on ‘autopilot’ and that there would not be a hasty end to quantitative easing. Better economic data also played its part with improvements seen in housing and labour markets. A rally in Hewlett-Packard’s shares, as the world’s largest PC maker raised its outlook, limited the falls in the Dow Jones (down 0.1%) and the S&P 500, which closed down 0.3%, an improvement on its opening lows.

Japan has taken centre stage in overnight trading. Japanese stocks and government bonds endured a volatile session, but the Nikkei 225 managed to finally close up 0.9% and government bonds closed off their lows too. The yen rose against the US dollar. Elsewhere in Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite closed up (0.6%), despite the recent weak manufacturing data, helped by gains in healthcare and technology stocks. European stocks were advancing this morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.3% at the open. In London the fragile mood of the market was reflected in share prices; at the time of writing the FTSE 100 was down 0.1%.