Stocks bounce, Aussie dollar hit by ratings blow

folarin okunola

July 7, 2016 2:27 PM

The European market were also seen starting firmer, with the FTSE and CAC seen up around 1 percent and the DAX rising 0.8 percent. U.S. S&P futures were little changed.

An employee counts Australian dollar banknotes at an exchange office in downtown Cairo, Egypt, April 19, 2016. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Asian share markets crept ahead on Thursday after upbeat U.S. economic data took some of the sting out of the latest Brexit scare, while the Australian dollar briefly dipped as the country's triple A credit rating came under threat.

The European market were also seen starting firmer, with the FTSE and CAC seen up around 1 percent and the DAX rising 0.8 percent. U.S. S&P futures were little changed.

The Aussie initially fell half a U.S. cent to $0.7470 after Standard and Poor's cut the country's outlook to negative from stable, citing a need for fiscal repair.

The agency had warned it may act after inconclusive elections over the weekend suggested the next government would have a hard time getting reforms through to law.

However, investors are less sensitive to ratings these days given so many countries were downgraded in the wake of the global financial crisis and the Aussie soon steadied at $0.7511.

Likewise, Australian bond futures barely budged as 10-year yields of 1.88 percent make the debt highly attractive compared to the negative yields of some of its peers.

Elsewhere in Asia, the mood was one of relief that Brexit fears had faded for the moment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent.

Japanese shares were restrained by a strong yen and the Nikkei slipped 0.9 percent.

Still, it was notable that while bond markets have been signalling recession, equities had stayed fairly resilient.

"The most optimistic interpretation is that markets believe a limited regional shock is going to result in a significantly easier stance for global monetary policy," David Hensley, an economist at JPMorgan, said in a note.

"At ground zero, the Bank of England has indicated it may soon cut rates. There is widespread speculation the BOJ and ECB will ease, a view we share."

More importantly, JPMorgan believes the Bank of England will revive its quantitative easing process while the UK government reverses course on austerity and loosens fiscal policy, which could be a green light to fiscal expansion globally.

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