Marketmind: China optimism spreads, S Korea GDP in focus
By Jamie McGeever
(Reuters) — A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.
The focus for Asian markets on Thursday will be on whether the improvement in investor sentiment toward China and Hong Kong continues, following the Chinese central bank's latest move to inject liquidity and support asset prices.
The regional economic data calendar is light and will be dominated by the first estimate of South Korea's fourth quarter gross domestic product growth, ahead of which the Korean won just chalked up its biggest rise against the dollar in a month.
The dollar is trading softer across the board, weighed down by lower U.S. bond yields and a rebound in market expectations that the Fed could cut interest rates as early as March.
That alone should help whet investors' risk appetite in Asia on Thursday, as should the rally in China and Hong Kong on Wednesday that was sparked by the People's Bank of China decision to slash bank reserves by the most in two years.
The move, which will inject about $140 billion of cash into the banking system, and PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng's pledge to unveil policies on improving commercial property loans extended this week's bounce in risk assets and the yuan.
The Shanghai Composite's 1.8% rise was its biggest since July, the CSI 300 index of blue chip shares is now poised to snap a three-week losing streak, and the Hang Seng jumped 3.6%.
Beijing's actions on Wednesday came hot on the heels of a Bloomberg News report that authorities are weighing up a 2-trillion yuan ($278 billion) funding package of measures to support the country's creaking markets.
And with strong U.S. earnings reports, especially from Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), and rising chipmaker stocks lifting the S&P 500 to yet another record
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