Asia stocks digest meaty gains, sterling starved for love
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares snoozed near 18-month highs on Friday as trade thinned in the run-up to Christmas and investors seemed content to digest the chunky gains already made so far this month.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was a fraction firmer in early trade, having gained 1.2% for the week so far and almost 5% for the month.
Japan's Nikkei inched up 0.1% after reaching a 14-month top earlier in the week. It was ahead by 2.5% for the month so far. South Korea's market added 0.25% on the day and 5.5% for December.
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 held at all-time highs having put on 1.2% for the week.
Sentiment had been bolstered after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States and China would sign their Phase One trade pact in early January.
Mnuchin said it was completely finished and just undergoing a technical “scrub,” though Beijing has so far dodged all details of the deal.
The US House of Representatives also overwhelmingly approved a new North American deal that leaves $1.2 trillion in annual US-Mexico-Canada trade flows largely intact.
The S&P 500 hit a sixth straight record high, its longest streak since January 2018, and the Nasdaq climbed for the seventh session in a row. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow all notched record closing highs.
The Dow ended Thursday up 0.49%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.45% and the Nasdaq 0.67%.
The market shrugged off US President Donald Trump’s impeachment, as the Republican-controlled Senate is widely expected to keep him in office.