Asian stocks rose, with the MSCI Asia Pacific index paring the week's drop, as the Federal Reserve maintained stimulus and a survey showed China's manufacturing gained pace. Tokyo shares jumped before a speech by the new Bank of Japan governor. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 1.3% after being shut the previous session for a public holiday, and heading towards the highest level since September 2008. (Bloomberg)(Financial Times)
Medvedev calls for EU rethink on Cyprus: The Russian prime minister signalled on Wednesday that Moscow was "prepared to consider various options" for providing aid to Cyprus but said the EU and Cyprus itself must come up with new, workable proposals first. A meeting between the Russian government and the European Commission is scheduled for today and Friday, now likely to be dominated by discussion on Cyprus. Asked about Russian aid in exchange for access to gas reserves, he said that was "not a simple question". Banks will remain closed until Tuesday. (Financial Times) Four possible scenarios. (Financial Times) Russian depositors totally fed up with Cyprus now. (Wall Street Journal)
The yen remained weak against most major partners ahead of a speech today by new BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda. (Bloomberg)
China manufacturing sentiment improves: The preliminary China PMI was 51.7 in March, HSBC and Markit Economics said, compared to 50.4 in February and an expectation of 50.8 for this month. (Bloomberg)
Japan's trade balance in deficit again: February imports were down 2.9% from a year earlier, while imports were 11.9% higher, leaving a shortfall of Y7775bn for the month, compared to January's Y1629.4bn. (Bloomberg)
Bernanke suggests tenure could end: ""I don't think that I'm the only person in the world who can manage the exit," the Fed governor said when asked at a news conference in Washington if he's discussed his plans with President Barack Obama. His term expires at the end of January." (Bloomberg) He also gave the most explicit indication yet that the Fed was likely to slow the pace of QE3 purchases before bringing them to a halt. (Financial Times)
Bouyant Foxtons in talks to go public: BC Partners, which bought Foxtons in 2007 "have held talks with bankers about an IPO of the hard-charging estate agency that became a symbol of the UK property boom before stumbling when house sales dried up." (Financial Times)
HP board survives protest vote: Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker by unit sales, suffered a shareholder protest vote at its annual meeting on Wednesday, but its chairman and members of the board survived calls for their removal. (Financial Times)
COMMENT AND CURIOS:
- Martin Wolf: Shrewd politics disguises brutal and problematic economics. (Financial Times)
- Editorial: Osborne doubles down on bad fiscal bet. (Bloomberg)
- David Pilling: Abe is right to end decades of penalising Japan's young. (Financial Times)
- John Gapper: Investors should challenge money-hoarding executives. (Financial Times)
- Chinese state media gets critical of foreign-made cars. (Wall Street Journal)
- China moves towards abandoning one-child policy. (Bloomberg)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS: UP
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +153.28 (+1.23%) at 12,622
Topix up +12.03 (+1.15%) at 1,058
Hang Seng up +15.54 (+0.07%) at 22,272
US markets
S&P 500 up +10.37 (+0.67%) at 1,559
DJIA up +55.91 (+0.39%) at 14,512
Nasdaq up +25.09 (+0.78%) at 3,254
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +3.97 (+0.33%) at 1,199
FTSE100 down -8.62 (-0.13%) at 6,433
CAC 40 up +53.81 (+1.43%) at 3,830
Dax up +54.18 (+0.68%) at 8,002
Currencies
€/$ 1.29 (1.29)
$/¥ 95.69 (95.98)
£/$ 1.51 (1.51)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.08 at 108.64
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.23 at 93.27
100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,608
Copper (Comex) up +3.30 at 346.85
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 1.96%
UK 1.89%
Germany 1.39%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe +0.98bps at 101.9bp
Markit iTraxx Europe n/abps at 118.48bp
Markit iTraxx Xover n/abps at 477.4bp
Markit CDX IG n/abps at 89.43bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
