(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rebounded as Japanese equities advanced, shaking off a decline following a U.S. missile strike on Syria. The yen strengthened against the dollar while gold and oil surged.
“The missile attack had a short-term impact for trading in Asia and it's normalizing this afternoon,” said Thomas Hugger, the Hong-Kong based chief executive officer of Asia Frontier Capital Ltd. “The more important event today and tomorrow is the visit between President Xi and President Trump where a lot of Asian related items are on the agenda and the outcome will be very important for Asia,” he said.
The missile strike marked a stark reversal for U.S. President Donald Trump, who during his presidential campaign faulted past leaders for getting embroiled in Middle East conflicts. The first such strike under Trump targeted hangars, planes and fuel tanks at one military airfield, according to a U.S. official. S&P 500 futures were down 0.1 percent after falling as much as 0.7 percent.
Spot gold rose as much as 1.4 percent to $1,269.53 an ounce, the highest price since Nov. 9, the day after Trump was elected. Crude oil futures rose 1.7 percent to $52.57 a barrel.
Summary
- Topix +0.7%, Nikkei 225 +0.4%
- Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and Hang Seng Index were little changed, Shanghai Composite Index +0.2%
- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index -0.1%, Aussie dollar -0.3%
- New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index -0.6%
- South Korea's Kospi -0.1%
- Philippine Stock Exchange PSEi Index +0.2%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index -0.1%, Straits Times Index -0.1%, Jakarta Composite Index -0.5%, Thailand's SET Index little changed, India's Sensex Index -0.3%
To contact the reporters on this story: Divya Balji in Singapore at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Choong En Han in Kuala Lumpur at echoong6@bloomberg.net, Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at giang1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Nagi at chrisnagi@bloomberg.net, Vivek Shankar, Margo Towie
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