Asian stocks were set for a strong start on Friday, following firm overnight leads from Wall Street and Europe as a further retreat in bond yields eased concerns about rampant inflation, restoring appetite for battered tech stocks.
"It's looking like we'll see a positive open across Asia-Pacific markets," said Michael McCarthy, chief markets strategist at CMC Markets."The big news overnight was the decision from the ECB. There might be some disappointment they didn't expand their bond purchase program but that's largely offset by undertakings to accelerate the purchases."The German 10-year yield was last at -0.332 after falling as far as -0.367per cent, the lowest level since Feb.
In contrast, shares of bank stocks lost 0.47per cent. Still, while the Dow and S&P 500 closed at record highs, the tech-heavy Nasdaq paced the gains, rising more than 2per cent on the day.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.04per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.52per cent.
An auction of 30-year U.S. debt on Thursday was viewed as slightly weak, but nowhere near the disappointing seven-year auction in late February that helped fuel inflation concerns and sent yields higher.