Gold, stocks upbeat as US shutdown deal clears Senate

SINGAPORE: Asian stocks rose on Tuesday while gold and the Nasdaq were basking in their sharpest gains for months thanks to signs an end to the US government shutdown was in the offing. Gold jumped nearly 3% overnight and was comfortably above $4,100 in the Asia morning.

The Nasdaq rose 2.3% to recover much of the losses inflicted last week by a bout of nerves around the valuation and profitability of AI firms.

South Korea’s Kospi was also clawing back last week’s falls and advanced 1.3% in early trade, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4%.

Markets in Hong Kong and China were slightly lower by mid-morning.

S&P 500 futures were steady.

The US Senate passed a deal that would restore US federal funding and end the longest shutdown late on Monday.

It now heads to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would like to pass it as soon as Wednesday and send it on to President Donald Trump to sign into law.

Prediction markets, such as the online Polymarket, have reopening nearly fully priced in for the end of the week.

Vasu Menon, managing director for investment strategy at OCBC in Singapore, said markets were breathing a sigh of relief that the end of the shutdown was near.

He said the government reopening will lead to the resumption of data publication, which may clear the way to interest rate cuts and is providing extra support for gold prices.

On Wall Street the S&P 500 closed up 1.54% for its biggest one-day percentage gain since mid October and the Nasdaq notched its largest daily gain since May.

Yen hits nine-month low

Safe havens such as the Japanese yen and US Treasuries initially retreated, with the mood favouring risk-taking.

The yen was under pressure at 154.49, its weakest level since February.

Bonds, however, recovered some ground as Federal Reserve speakers have been casting doubt on the rate cut that markets are tentatively expecting for December.

Ten-year Treasury yields rose to a high of 4.147% on Monday but finished the session at 4.11%, with traders already starting to look past reopening.

The bond market was closed on Tuesday to mark Veterans Day.

“We don’t think (reopening is) going to lead to a really sustained selloff in rates, just because it’s not like markets had responded that negatively to the shutdown in the first place,” said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney.

“Markets treated this assuming it (shutdown) was going to end.”