· The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 40.49 points, or 0.18 percent, to 22,381.2, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.02 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,510.06 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.19 points, to6,453.45.
Wall Street edged higher on Thursday, as the S&P 500 eked out a record on gains in McDonald’s and healthcare names, while investors continued to hope President Donald Trump will be able to make progress on tax reform.
· U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Trump’s proposal for a cut in the corporate income tax rate to20 percent was “not negotiable.”
The plan, which called for tax cuts for most Americans, also drew criticism for favoring business and the rich and potentially adding trillions of dollars to the deficit.
· Asian shares were mixed early in Friday trade after the greenback gave back some gains overnight as markets digested prospects for U.S. tax reform. Markets in Asia also digested a raft of data out of Japan.
· The Nikkei 225 shed 0.19 percent in early trade after the dollar rally paused overnight. The U.S. currency, however, inched higher against the yen following the release of a raft of economic data early in the session. The greenback traded at 112.56 at 8:12 a.m. HK/SIN, up from levels around 112.4 earlier, but below the 113touched during Asian trade on Thursday.
· Japan's core consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the eighth straight month of annual gains, in an encouraging sign for a central bank struggling to meet its 2 percent inflation target.
Japan's economy expanded at an annualised 2.5 percent in the second quarter as consumer and company spending picked up.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng