Bull run on Wall St spurs Asian indices

Tokyo European shares declined on Friday after a day of gains in Asia following Wall Street’s return to bull market status. France’s CAC 40 lost 0.4 per cent to 7,198.50, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3 per cent to 16,886.40. Britain’s FTSE-100 shed 0.4 per cent to 7,572.16. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2 per cent and the contract for the S&P 500 future was down 0.1 per cent. Asian benchmarks rose Friday, tracking Wall Street’s gains. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.0 per cent to finish at 32,265.17. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 per cent to 7,122.50. South Korea's Kospi added 1.2 per cent to 2,641.16. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.5 per cent to 19,389.95. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 per cent to 3,231.41.

Still, Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said “worries persist over the weakness of China's recovery from pandemic restrictions China's post-reopening recovery has slowed incredibly in the second quarter. Now, people are wondering if we are near rock bottom or not.”

On Thursday, the S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent. The Dow gained 0.5 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 1 per cent. With the S&P 500 rising 20 per cent above the bottom it hit in October, Wall Street's main measure of health has climbed out of a painful bear market, which saw it drop 25.4 per cent over roughly nine months. The arrival of a bull market also doesn't mean the stock market has made it back to its prior heights. A 25 per cent drop for the S&P 500 requires a 33 per cent rally just to get back to even.