{"id":68021,"date":"2024-02-16T17:48:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=68021"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:08:11","slug":"friday-16th-february-2024-asian-markets-reach-new-highs-despite-economic-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/friday-16th-february-2024-asian-markets-reach-new-highs-despite-economic-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday 16th February 2024: Asian Markets Reach New Highs Despite Economic Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.99%, Shanghai Composite up 1.28%, Hang Seng up 2.48% ASX up 0.69%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2015.5 (0.02%), Silver at $22.97 (0.24%), Brent Oil at $82.65 (-0.06%), WTI Oil at $78.27 (0.10%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.265, UK 10-year yield at 4.1081, Germany 10-year yield at 2.361<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) Natural Gas Storage -49B vs&nbsp; -67B expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 surged to a fresh 34-year high, approaching all-time record levels at an intraday peak of 38,863.69, less than 100 points away from its historical pinnacle. Despite recent economic challenges and entering a technical recession, the index rose by 1.0%, sparking speculation that Japan might extend its ultra-loose monetary policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The economic slowdown in Japan, which recently dropped to the fourth-largest global economy, raised hopes of prolonged monetary support. The finance minister&#8217;s concerns about the yen&#8217;s weakness have not deterred the upward trend. In the broader Asia-Pacific region, markets mirrored positive Wall Street momentum. Hong Kong&#8217;s Hang Seng index led gains with a 2.4% surge, while Australia&#8217;s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 rose by 0.69%, and South Korea&#8217;s Kospi climbed by 1.24%. Mainland Chinese markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investor attention also turned to Singapore&#8217;s 2024 budget release later in the day. In the United States, all three major indexes closed positively, rebounding from earlier losses in the week. The S&amp;P 500 set a new record high, rising by 0.58% to 5,029.73, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.30% to close at 15,906.17, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 348.85 points higher, or 0.91%, ending at 38,773.12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>1:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Wholesale Sales m\/m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Building Permits<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Housing Starts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Core PPI m\/m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD PPI m\/m<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: On Friday, Japan&#8217;s Nikkei [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68022,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68021\/revisions\/68022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}