Stocks in Asia were muted overnight with the Nikkei (^N225) ending flat on the day in Japan after the country’s 30-year yield fell by more than 19bps during the session.
That was its biggest daily decline since the regional banking turmoil of March 2023, and marked a sharp reversal from recent weeks, when yields had hit their highest level since that maturity was first issued.
As a reminder, the move came after several media outlets reported that Japan’s finance ministry sent out a questionnaire to market participants, asking about their views on issuance.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.6% in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was treading water by the end of the session.
Across the pond on Wall Street, US equities saw a strong recovery after the long weekend. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) surged more than 2%, its best performance since the US and China agreed to slash their tariff rates a couple of weeks earlier.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 2.5% higher and the Dow Jones (^DJI) gained 1.8%.
Stocks received further momentum from the US conference board’s latest consumer confidence indicator for May, which rose for the first time in six months. Figures rebounded by more than expected to 98.0 (compared to the forecast 87.1).
This included a particularly large jump in the expectations component, which surged 17.4pts on the month to 72.8, which is the biggest monthly rise since May 2009 when the US economy was still emerging from the aftershocks of the global financial crisis. That helped to cement the view that a serious downturn would probably be avoided, which helped to support risk assets.
