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The week starts late for many Asian economies with the Chinese New Year holidays which could make for thin trades. Nevertheless, the start of February promises a new set of indicators for Asia.
The first 100 days of President Donald Trump commenced and the man in the white house wasted no time issuing orders from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) withdrawal to the building of the Mexican border wall. Reactions had mostly been positive into the end of January, with the market taken to the aspects of infrastructure building. Both the S&P 500 index and DJIA index inched up to fresh highs in the week, the latter crossing the 20,000 milestone.
Asian markets, which have shown resilience at the start of the week, despite de-globalization concerns, were further inspired by Wall Street’s climb. As January comes to an end next week, a lookback found gains across the board for Asian markets excluding Japan. For the local STI, early concerns of sustainability above the 3,000 mark were quashed with another leg up for the Trump-inspired trade. The rally had also been supported by another favorable set of US earnings report thus far. This is a trend that could continue into the following week with another one-fifth of companies due to report on the S&P 500.