On a recent Wednesday, the ASX 200 index jumped up by 0.5 percent following a surge on Wall Street due to robust employment figures. These positive numbers contrast sharply with the anxiety surrounding US President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war.
The noticeable uptick in the ASX 200 index placed it just under half a per cent short of its peak in February of the same year. The figures of this preceding period were before the announcement of tariffs which consequently led to a frenzy of significant selling activity among investors.
Looking at the figures for the preceding Tuesday, the ASX 200 actually ended with an approximate 0.7 percent rise. This happened despite IDP Education experiencing a catastrophic downfall of 48 percent in its share price, following its forecast that its earnings would see a sharp decline.
However, in the course of Wednesday trading, IDP managed to recover some of the losses, with its stock climbing by 4.6 per cent within the first half hour of the trading day.
Drawing attention towards the most significant movers, Judo Capital took the lead with an increase of 6.5 per cent. Following closely behind were Paladin Energy and Boss Energy, noting upswings of 6.1 and 5.3 per cent respectively.
Across the ocean on Tuesday, Wall Street showed green hues with the Dow Jones index climbing up half a percentage point. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq followed suit, with increases of 0.6 and 0.8 percent respectively.
Contributing to Wall Street’s bullish outlook were some of the major chip-makers. With Nvidia tacking on 2.8 percent and Broadcom surging by 3.3 percent, these companies solidly supported the indexes. The uplift happened after Broadcom announced the start of export for its latest chip.
Another significant driver behind the rise in indexes was the surprising increase in US job openings for April. The figures rose unexpectedly to 7.4 million up from 7.2 million the previous month. This rise happened regardless of the strain of Trump’s trade war and propelled the S&P 500 to within three percent of its all-time peak.
Looking over to Europe, the story was less exciting on Tuesday. In the UK, London’s FTSE 250 Index ended the day relatively stable with no significant change. While in Germany, the DAX Index noted an uptick of 0.7 percent.
However, minor gains were seen in the European STOXX 600, which inched up by just 0.1 percent.
Moving the lens towards New Zealand, the NZX 50 Index observed a surge of 0.6 per cent on the same Wednesday. The bullish sentiment echoed in the Asia-Pacific region was felt here as well.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was also part of the global green trend on display in many regions. Enjoying a moderate rise, it went up by nearly 0.9 percent which added to the wider positive outlook in the market.