25/11/2018/Bloomberg

By Adam Haigh and Andreea Papuc

• Tech shares lead gains in Asia after another slump last week
• Ten-year Treasury yields keep above 3% ahead of Fed comments

Stocks began the last week of November on a positive footing, with most Asian benchmarks higher and U.S. equity futures advancing after last week’s tumble. Oil prices also made a run at stabilizing, with West Texas crude putting some distance from the $50 a barrel mark. 

Shares advanced from Tokyo and Seoul to Hong Kong, while Australian equities declined. Most groups in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index were higher, led by technology — the sector that’s been pounded in the U.S. for most of the past eight weeks. Among key variables for investors this week will be Federal Reserve speeches and policy-meeting minutes that may give clues on the outlook into 2019, and a key sit-down between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump weeks ahead of the next scheduled escalation in tariff hikes. The yen dipped along with Treasuries, while China’s yuan held steady. 

With bond traders having reduced expectations for the pace of U.S. monetary policy tightening, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has the opportunity of shedding light on prospects for a 2019 pause in a speech this week. Stocks, meantime, have been coping with waves of investor concern about the peak of the corporate-earnings cycle, which have also hit credit markets.

“The market will be looking for potentially some signs of dovish overtures coming through” from the Fed this week, John Lockton, head of investment strategy in Sydney at Wilsons Advisory & Stockbroking, told Bloomberg TV. On trade, investors “are looking for a pathway. I am not sure we are going to see a detailed agreement. A pathway to success, a pathway to an outcome will be highly supportive of equities globally,” he said.

Elsewhere, bitcoin extended its recent tumble to below $4,000 following the worst week ever for cryptocurrencies. Iron ore futures tanked in Singapore as steel mills’ profitability in China sunk, prompting producers to cut their consumption of the raw material. The pound remains in focus, though traded flat, after European Union leaders agreed to the Brexit deal from U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May.