Nov. 5 （Bloomberg） -- Japanese stock futures and Australian shares rose as commodity prices increased and on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve will succeed in stoking growth in the world’s biggest economy.
American depositary receipts of Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest commodities trader, climbed 2 percent from the closing share price in Tokyo. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s No. 1 mining company, and Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia’s biggest gold producer, advanced more than 2.5 percent in Sydney today. ADRs of Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest carmaker, jumped 7 percent in New York after increasing its profit forecast.
“With speculation of continuing excess liquidity, money is flowing into risk assets,” including stocks and commodities, said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “Uncertainties about the global economic outlook are clearing.”
Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average expiring in December closed at 9,470 in Chicago yesterday, compared with 9,340 in Singapore. They were bid in the pre-market at 9,470 in Osaka, Japan, at 8:05 a.m. local time. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.3 percent today. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.4 percent in Wellington.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The index jumped 1.9 percent yesterday, the most in a month, as investors speculated the Federal Reserve will succeed in stoking growth and that banks will raise dividends.
Bank of Japan
The Bank of Japan is scheduled to end a two-day meeting today. It advanced the session to immediately follow a meeting by policy makers at U.S. Federal Reserve, which said Nov. 3 that the U.S. central bank will purchase as much as $600 billion of assets through June.
“People are attentive to what actions the Bank of Japan will take,” Nikko Cordial’s Nishi said.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 11 percent this year to yesterday, compared with gains of 9.5 percent by the S&P 500 and 6.7 percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 14.6 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 14.4 times for the S&P 500 and 12.4 times for the Stoxx 600.
Prices of oil and metals surged as the Federal Reserve’s plans to buy more U.S. debt drove the dollar lower, boosting demand for commodities as alternative investments.
Commodities, Nissan
Crude oil for December delivery rose 2.1 percent in New York yesterday to $86.49 a barrel, the highest settlement price since April 6. Copper futures advanced 3.3 percent to a 28-month high. Gold futures surged to a record of $1,393.40. The London Metal Exchange Index of prices for six industrial metals including copper and aluminum jumped 3.1 percent yesterday, the most since May.
Nissan Motor boosted its forecast for full-year net income by 80 percent to 270 billion yen （$3.3 billion）, more than the median estimate of 252 billion yen by 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage, increased its share-price estimate on the carmaker to 1,100 yen from 990 yen.
About 130 companies of almost 1,000 in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index are scheduled to announce earnings this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far, about six companies have exceeded profit estimates for every five that have fallen short, based on Bloomberg data compiled from about 440 companies that have reported quarterly results since Oct. 7.
Resona Holdings Inc., Japan’s fourth-largest bank by market value, may sell several hundred billion yen in shares to repay its debt to the Japanese government faster, Nikkei English News reported on its website, without saying where it got the information.
--Editors: Nicolas Johnson, Sam Waite.
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