A currency trader walks by a screen showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. Asian stocks rose Monday as investors looked ahead to quarterly U.S. economic data and updates on anti-coronavirus curbs on business amid wrangling over the American presidential election.
A currency trader watches computer monitors near screens showing the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), left bottom, and the foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. Asian stocks rose Monday as investors looked ahead to quarterly U.S. economic data and updates on anti-coronavirus curbs on business amid wrangling over the American presidential election.
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks and Wall Street futures rose Monday as investors looked ahead to quarterly U.S. economic data amid unease about anti-coronavirus restrictions and wrangling over the American presidential election.
London, Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong advanced. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Investors awaited U.S. economic growth data due out Wednesday after Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended last week down as rising infection numbers collided with hopes for a possible vaccine. Also Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve is to report on its latest meeting, though no surprises are expected.
Investors have been rattled by decisions to reimpose anti-virus controls in the United States, Europe and some Asian countries that threaten to hamper retail spending, travel and other business activity.
“In the short term, the negative news may well win out,” Patrik Schowitz of J.P. Morgan Asset Management said in a report. He noted U.S. data are “beginning to wobble a bit.”
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.4% to 6,378.47 and the DAX in Frankfurt added 1% to 13,266.93. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.8% to 5,538.19.
On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was up 0.7%. That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.8% higher.