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Sunday, May 28, 2023

Stocks rise on US debt ceiling deal but China drags

 Asian shares and Wall Street futures rose on Monday as a weekend deal by U.S. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend the government's debt ceiling provided relief for investors although China worries capped sentiment.

Europe is set to open slightly higher, with pan-regional Euro Stoxx 50 futures up 0.2%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% while Nasdaq futures firmed 0.5%.

After weeks of negotiations, congressional Republican McCarthy and Biden agreed on Saturday to avert an economically destabilising default by suspending the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until 2025. The deal now has to clear a narrowly divided Congress before the United States runs out of money to pay its debts in early June.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, with falls in Chinese and Hong Kong shares offsetting gains seen elsewhere.

Elsewhere, Tokyo's Nikkei surged 1.0% to a fresh 33-year high and Australia's resources heavy shares gained 1.0%.

"There may be an initial sliver of relief that may send yields a tad lower along with some U.S. dollar bump-up, alongside equities. But the vagaries of pushing the deal through Congress may hold back (the optimism)," said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

"And beyond that, the overriding implications on liquidity squeeze from issuances to bolster cash that is running very low at the Treasury may perversely elevate yields and dampen equities. The dollar, though, may be bid."

Defying the bullish trend, China's bluechips lost 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.8%, after weak profit data for China's industrial firms added to signs of flagging momentum in the world's second-biggest economy.

Cash U.S. Treasuries were untraded in Asia on Monday, owing to the Memorial Day holiday, while futures were broadly steady. Two-year yields hit a 2-1/2 month high of 4.6390% on Friday on market bets of higher Federal Reserve rates for longer.

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