Stocks, precious metals rise; yen on intervention watch

SINGAPORE, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Asia shares rose alongside precious metals on Tuesday as momentum buying from investors extended ahead of the festive holidays, with an advanced reading on U.S. GDP expected later in the day.

Sign up here.

Despite it being a holiday-shortened week for much of the world, investors will have the chance to catch up on a slew of U.S. economic releases in the coming days, which had been delayed by a record government shutdown last month.

Tuesday’s key data point will be on third-quarter growth figures, which are forecast to show the U.S. economy had continued to grow strongly.

Expectations are for annualised growth to come in at 3.3%, a slight pullback from the previous quarter due in part to a sharp pullback in imports after a run-up earlier in the year ahead of the introduction of tariffs.

“Looking ahead, underlying growth is likely to slow down in Q4 given the lengthy government shutdown and the potential for a further headwind from auto sales,” said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie Group.

European futures were mixed , , while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were little changed.

“Risk-on sentiment is dominating Wall Street to begin the week of Christmas, with investors raising equity and commodity exposures as we approach year-end,” said Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

“For now, traders are taking their cue from the general sense amongst participants that there’s little standing in the way for a Santa Claus rally to manifest.”

Oil prices eased a touch, having risen on Monday on worries about supply disruption.

Brent crude futures edged 0.26% lower to $61.91 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell 0.33% to $57.82 per barrel.

INTERVENTION RISK KEEPS YEN IN CHECK

Over in the foreign exchange market, the yen remained the focal point as investors weighed the odds of an imminent intervention from Japanese authorities to shore up the currency.

That sent the yen rising some 0.7% against the dollar to 155.99 . It also made broad gains against other peers like the euro and the Swiss franc .

Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho, however, doesn’t necessarily see intervention as imminent, saying it “may instead be opportunistic.”

“And to be sure, there will be no fixed ‘line in the sand’,” he said.

“Their message is so underwhelming… you hike, but you need to hike with conviction. They didn’t hike with conviction,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis.

In other currencies, the dollar was on the back foot, with the euro up 0.15% at $1.1776, while sterling rose 0.24% to $1.3493.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab