On Monday, Asian stocks jumped, with a wide regional benchmark hitting a record level on expectations for imminent vaccines against coronavirus. However, concerns about the impact of economic lockdowns and controversy about stimulus initiatives in the United States constrained the gains.
COVID-19 Asian economic recovery
Asian stocks soared on Monday as shareholders looked forward to United States quarterly economic results in the midst of anxiety about business, anti-coronavirus curbs, and feuding over the United States presidential election.
While Hong Kong withdrew, stocks milestones in Shanghai, Seoul, and Sydney climbed. For the holidays, Japanese markets have been shut.
Right after Wall Street's stocks index S&P 500 index finished last week went down and as growing disease statistics clashed with excitement about a potential vaccine, investors began to look forward to third-quarter United States economic expansion data coming out on Wednesday.
The United States Federal Reserve is also scheduled on Wednesday to update its most recent meeting, although no changes are anticipated.
Recent data revealed that in the first 20 days of November, South Korean exports have increased by 7.6 percent, driven by an increasing international appetite for electronics.
Asian economist at Capital Economics Research Company, Alex Holmes, stated during a research report sent out to Al Jazeera: "The electronics-driven strength of Korean exports bodes well for other large electronics producers in the region, namely Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia."
Holmes also added that: "The strong performance of Asian exports has provided an important support to economic growth and is likely to see the region continue to outperform the rest of the world in the months ahead."
As a positive income outlook for South Korean chip companies led gains, Seoul's KOSPI main stocks market has been 1.82 percent higher.
On Monday, MSCI's widest Asia-Pacific stocks market from outside Japan rose 0.56 percent, getting past a recent record level reached on Friday.
United States economy yet to cope up
The United States had announced as much as 1 million latest cases of COVID-19 earlier in the month, marking the 11th day in a row that there have been more than 100,000 daily cases registered in the country. According to the Johns Hopkins University real-time database, the U.S. reached 12 million Covid-19 infections on Saturday.
Head of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui had predicted that lockdowns that crippled the global economy may be drawing to a close, despite the history of increasing COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. Operation Warp Speed is a special government program that speeds up the production of COVID-19 vaccines.
Chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, Michael McCarthy, had this to say: "With the vaccine on its way and the likelihood that economic damage being done by the virus will lift, we'll still have in place substantial support from central banks and governments. And that is an economic sweet spot that should see a significant economic bounce."
With reports by pharmaceutical companies regarding positive preliminary results from testing of potential vaccines, investor interest had increased. Those expectations have also been balanced by the possibility of the weeks or months needed to test, manufacture, and administer a potential vaccine even though it is effective.
