Tokyo (awp/afp) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange was in the green on Thursday morning, as investors digested statements by the Fed boss before the US Congress, where he admitted the risk of a recession in the United States .
The flagship Nikkei index gained 0.72% to 26,338.86 points around 12:40 a.m. GMT and the broader Topix index gained 0.63% to 1,864.25 points, despite Wall Street closing down slightly the day before.
US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged on Wednesday that a recession was “certainly a possibility” in the United States with his institution’s more aggressive monetary tightening to tame inflation, but that it was not “not at all the desired effect”.
He also said a soft landing for the US economy would be “very difficult” to achieve. But these assertions did not really surprise the equity markets, which have already made the same analysis in recent times. A rehearing of Mr. Powell is scheduled for Thursday.
Today’s value
TOSHIBA: Toshiba stock jumped 5.38% to 5,797 yen as potential takeover bidders of the conglomerate plan to offer up to 7,000 yen per share, or about $22 billion, according to press reports.
An amount to be taken with a grain of salt, however, because the takeover process is still at an early stage and many uncertainties remain as to its realization, warned analyst Travis Lundy on the Smartkarma platform.
On the side of oil and currencies
Oil continued to brood after its heavy losses the day before, in particular against the backdrop of fears of a US recession. After 0:20 GMT, the barrel of American WTI still yielded 2.05% to 104.91 dollars, and the barrel of Brent from the North Sea lost 1.83% to 109.69 dollars.
The Japanese currency appreciated slightly against the dollar, which nevertheless remained above 136 yen (136.11 yen around 0035 GMT against 136.26 yen Thursday at 2100 GMT).
The Japanese currency also rose against the euro, which was worth 143.81 yen against 143.97 yen the day before.
The euro/dollar rate was almost stable, at one euro for 1.0563 dollars against 1.0566 dollars Thursday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
etb/ybl