BEIJING, April 29 (BNA): Global stocks rose on Friday after Chinese leaders pledged to do more to support the sluggish economy as the country grapples with its worst outbreak of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
The powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party agreed at a meeting on Friday to step up efforts to boost growth while curbing the outbreak of the coronavirus, Chinese state media reported.
But she said the meeting agreed to adjust policies to keep the economy, which was slowing even before the recent waves of coronavirus infections, “operating within a reasonable range” and to speed up implementation of tax cuts and cuts, and to ensure adequate energy supplies and aid. Industries, small and medium-sized businesses, and households severely affected by the pandemic.
He said the message was more candid than previous messages, but that China “needs to pursue actual policy. I don’t see anything new in the real estate market and there is no direct support for consumption.”
The Shanghai Composite rose 2.4% to 3047.06 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 4.1% to 21101.27.
Tokyo is closed for a holiday, the first of many for the upcoming “Golden Week” in Japan.
In Seoul, the Kospi Index rose 1% to 2,695.05, while the Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.1% to 7435.00, according to the Associated Press.
The price of benchmark US crude oil rose 32 cents to $105.70 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $3.34 to $105.36 a barrel on Thursday.
Brent crude, the basis for global oil pricing, rose 73 cents to $107.99.
Hours later Thursday, SEC filings showed that Elon Musk had sold 4.4 million shares of Tesla stock worth nearly $4 billion, likely to help fund his purchase of Twitter.
On Thursday, Tesla shares closed slightly lower at $877.51. They’re down 17% so far this year.
Wall Street’s major stock indexes posted their biggest gains in more than six weeks Thursday, as technology companies regained some ground they lost recently.
The S&P 500 rose 2.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8%. The Nasdaq rose 3.1%, while the Russell 2000 added 1.8%.
The US Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates aggressively as it escalates its fight against inflation. The Fed chair indicated that the central bank may raise short-term interest rates by twice the usual amount in upcoming meetings, starting next week. It has already raised its key overnight rate, the first such increase since 2018.
Investors will get another update Friday on spending, a measure of the economy as everything from food to clothing and gas becomes more expensive, when the Commerce Department releases its Personal Income and Expenditure Report for March.
In currencies, the dollar bought 130.13 Japanese yen, down from 130.87 yen. The euro rose to $1.0570 from $1.0536.
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