Catalan vote dents euro, upbeat US data lifts stocks
TOKYO: The euro dipped after Catalan separatists wanting to break away from Spain won a regional election, while Asian stocks edged up on new data pointing to steady growth in the US economy.
Spreadbetters expected Britain’s FTSE to open down 0.2 per cent, Germany’s DAX to start 0.15 per cent lower and France’s CAC to open 0.2 per cent lower.
The euro momentarily dipped to US$ 1.1817 early in the day as preliminary results from regional votes on Thursday showed pro-independence parties in Catalonia keeping an absolute majority. It trimmed losses to last stand at US$1.1849, down 0.2 per cent.
“Some speculators appeared to have sold the euro in thin trading,” said Yukio Ishizuki, senior currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
“The overall impact of the Catalan vote on the euro and the wider global markets is likely to be limited, however. Catalonia cannot become a sovereign state if no other country recognises its independence. It won’t even be able to have its own currency under such conditions.”
With nearly all votes counted, separatist parties won a slim majority in Catalan parliament, a result that promises to prolong political tensions in Spain.
“The bid for independence looks set to continue with the two main separatist parties gaining more seats after the vote,” wrote Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.
“But the one-sided declaration of independence in October ended in failure and this will likely result in a strategic change.”
Bitcoin momentarily fell 14.7 per cent to below US$14,000 on the Bitstamp exchange. The volatile digital currency trimmed its losses to last stand at US$14,100 for a loss of 9.3 per cent.
The cryptocurrency, which was at about US$1,000 at the year’s start, had climbed to a record high of US$19,666 on Sunday.
The Asia- Pacific region’s equities took cues from Wall Street, after all three of its indexes posted gains overnight on strength in bank and energy stocks and news the US economy grew in the third quarter at its fastest pace in more than two years.
Supporting US stocks this week, and by extension global equities, was the passage through Congress of a US$1.5 trillion taxcutting bill’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.5 per cent higher.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3 per cent and Shanghai dipped 0.1 per cent.
Australian stocks advanced 0.15 per cent, South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.45 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.15 per cent.
The dollar was steady at 113.370 yen, with its index against a basket of six major currencies 0.1 per cent higher at 93.392.
The benchmark 10- year Treasury yield was at 2.482 per cent, having pulled back slightly from a nine-month peak above 2.5 per cent scaled the previous day. — Reuters