At the end of the week, the East Asian stock markets are quiet, with most indices moving only slightly. After positive signals from Wall Street, where better-than-expected GDP growth in the fourth quarter had fueled hopes of a soft landing for the economy in the wake of the rate-hike cycle, South Korea’s Seoul is still doing the most with a plus of 0.7 percent . Tokyo is trending unchanged, as is Hong Kong. In Shanghai, trade paused for the fifth and final time due to the New Year celebrations. Sydney has already ended the day up 0.3 percent.
The buying mood in Tokyo is being slowed down slightly by the somewhat firmer yen. It is rising because core consumer prices in Tokyo, which rose a tad more than expected by 4.3 percent in January, are stoking speculation that the Japanese central bank could also be about to tighten monetary policy.
Yields on the Japanese bond market then rose slightly, in the ten-year range by 2 basis points to 0.48 percent and thus almost to the 0.5 percent upper limit pursued by the Japanese central bank.
In Seoul, LG displays are 3.5 percent more expensive after the presentation of the fourth-quarter report, and Hyundai Mobis are also 1.6 percent cheaper after the balance sheet has been viewed.