published Apr 19th 2016, 6:38 pm, by Candice Zachariahs

(Bloomberg) —
Asian equities were poised to climb for a second day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose to a four-month high and commodities from oil to silver advanced on Tuesday.

Futures on equity gauges for Japan to Australia and Hong Kong foreshadowed advances while contracts on the U.S. benchmark slipped. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a measure of returns for 22 components, jumped 2.5 percent on Tuesday, the biggest gain since Aug. 27. The yen held two days of losses ahead of a report that economists forecast will show Japan’s exports slumped for a sixth month in March.

A gauge of Asian equities has risen in all but three sessions this month as data pointed to a stabilization in Chinese growth, U.S. companies reported better-than-expected earnings and the Federal Reserve signaled a slower pace of interest-rate hikes. The better sentiment has yet to fully reverse yen strength, hurting exporters and leading some analysts to speculate that the Bank of Japan will ease monetary policy further when it meets April 27-28.

“Asian markets look set for a strong open again today, supported by the rally in commodities,” said Angus Nicholson, a Melbourne-based market analyst at IG Ltd. “The Nikkei is reacting very positively to further weakness in the yen.”

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.3 percent Tuesday, closing above 2,100 for the first time since since Dec. 1, as commodity producers rallied in a seesaw session amid mixed company profit reports.

Stocks

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 Index, the first major stock gauge to start trading each day in the Asia-Pacific region, slipped 0.2 percent as of 8:26 a.m. in Tokyo, following six days of gains. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.6 percent in most recent trading, while those on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.7 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures added 0.9 percent to 17,020 in Osaka pre-market.

Currencies

The yen was little changed at 109.27 per dollar, holding two days of losses as it retreated from a 17-month high of 107.63 reached last week.

The currencies of commodity-exporting nations New Zealand and Australia are near highest level against the dollar in 10 months. The kiwi traded little changed at 70.38 U.S. cents early Wednesday after breaching the 70-cent mark on Tuesday for the first time since June. The Aussie fetched 78.01 U.S. cents after climbing as high as 78.26 in the previous session.

Commodities

Crude oil fell 1.6 percent to $40.41 a barrel after gaining 3.3 percent in New York on Tuesday. Over the weekend, the world’s biggest producers failed to reach a deal in Doha to limit supplies amid a global glut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Garfield Reynolds at greynolds1@bloomberg.net John McCluskey, Sarah McDonald

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