Asian shares make cautious gains as beaten-down Treasuries find support

Daily Maverick

23-05-2025

By Stella Qiu
SYDNEY, May 23 (Reuters) – Asian shares made some tentative gains on Friday as beaten-down Treasuries found buyers after US President Donald Trump's tax bill narrowly passed the lower house, although debt worries still lingered.
Overnight, PMI data around the globe showed US business activity picked up pace in May, which helped Wall Street rise earlier in the session before running into selling pressures and closing the day largely flat. In contrast, disappointingly weak activity in Europe dragged shares there lower.
Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures both were flat.
The Republican-controlled US House voted by a slim margin to pass Trump's tax cut bill, which would fulfil many of his campaign pledges, but will increase the $36.2 trillion US debt pile by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.
Treasury yields, especially at the longer-dated end, have climbed on worries about US fiscal health in the run-up to the passage of the bill. That was exacerbated by the decision from Moody's last week to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, citing rising debt.
The 30-year bonds, however, did manage to find some buyers overnight with prices now at some attractive levels. Their yields fell another 1 basis point to 5.037% on Friday, having dropped 4 bps to pull away from a 19-month top of 5.161% earlier in the session.
'Maybe the certainty of getting something through has been enough to alleviate some of the fear, panic in the market, but as well as that, it is not unusual in big moves for there to be a bit of overshoot,' said Ken Crompton, senior interest rate strategist at the National Australia Bank.
'There is certainly nothing in this market move or the passage of this version of the bill that tells me there is going to be meaningful reductions in US bond issuance or this broader concern about global bond supply.'
In Asia, yields on super-long Japanese government bonds (JGBs) held near all-time highs on Friday. The 30-year yields have jumped 23 basis points this week and were last at 3.175%, which is being monitored closely by the Bank of Japan.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1% on Friday but for the week it is still set for a loss of 0.4% after five weeks of gains.
Chinese blue chips and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were largely flat.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1% as data showed Japan's core inflation accelerated at its fastest annual pace in more than two years in April.
In the currency market, the dollar was on the back foot again and is headed for a weekly drop of 1.2% against its major peers. The euro is set for the first weekly rise after four weeks of declines, and was up 0.2% on Friday at $1.1302.
US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday he still sees a path to rate cuts later this year, but noted that the outlook depends on where Trump's tariff policy settles.
Bitcoin is set for a weekly gain of 7% at $111,524, having touched a record high of $111,965 just on Thursday.
Oil prices fell for a fourth straight session on the prospects of further output increases by OPEC+ countries. US crude CLc1 futures dropped 0.7% to $60.76 a barrel and were down 2.7% for the week.
Brent fell 0.6% at $64.03 per barrel.
In precious metals, gold prices were flat at $3,292 an ounce, but were set for a weekly gain of 2.8%.