Asian shares and U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday as governments around the world looked poised to boost spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus and vaccine roll-out programmes accelerated.
Wall Street rallied on Tuesday on renewed hopes for U.S. President Joe Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid bill as the Senate took steps to allow Democrats to pass Biden's package without Republican support. "All the ingredients for a rapid recovery from Q2 onwards are getting sweetly baked into the reopening party cake," said Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi.
Sentiment was also bolstered by higher-than-expected earnings from tech giants Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc, which overshadowed the retail trading frenzy that roiled markets last week. The party for the Reddit-inspired trading frenzy that pushed GameStop's stock up five-fold in five days last week appeared over as its shares plunged 60% in heavy trade to close at $90.00, less than one-fifth of an all-time peak on Friday.