By Alun John

HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Asian shares markets rose on Friday. The safe-haven currency was weaker on concerns that the Omicron variant might not severely hamper global economic growth.

While the greenback headed for its worst week in September, other risk-friendly assets like bitcoin and the Australian dollar maintained their gains thanks to waning concerns about the severeness of the COVID-19 variant.

MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan increased 0.2% and climbed 0.1% after it had closed at an all-time high. [.N]

Some markets however fell due to tighter Omicron controls. Chinese blue chip stocks fell 0.32% per day following rising Omicron infections in Xi’an, a northwestern Chinese city. The lockdown resulted for its 13 million inhabitants.

Steven Leung in Hong Kong is the executive director for institutional Sales at UOB Kay Hian. He stated, “As it seems like neither tapering, nor the Omicron variation will have too much effect on the economy,”

Although the U.S. Federal Reserve stated last week that they would speed up tapering its vast bond-buying programme, it also paved the path for three interest rate increases in 2022. This did not cause the same turmoil in markets in 2018 as when the Fed reduced its quantitative easing after the financial crisis.

While economists are confident that the Omicron COVID-19 strain will not prevent another year of above trend growth, they also believe epidemiologists and health professionals should assess its impact on public services due to the apparent decreased severity but increased transmissibility.

U.S. equity and Treasury markets will be closed on Friday for the holiday, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures gained 0.66% and 0.8%, respectively, in Asian hours.

Pan-region jumped 1.35%.

SOFT DOLLAR

The, which compares the greenback to six other major currencies, was at 96.067. It was little changed over the day, but it was 0.6% lower than Friday’s close, its lowest week since September.

Except for the yen which is another safe haven, most currencies are losing ground to the dollar. On Friday, the Japanese currency stood at 114.38 dollars and 82.75 USD against the Australian dollar. This is almost the same level that was seen in November’s news regarding the Omicron variant.

The price was $0.7236, just below its 5-week high of $0.7252 overnight. And the last time the pound hit $1.3437, it was 1.4% higher than the previous week.

CBA FX analysts stated in a daily note that Omicron’s severity is lower than Delta and they are supporting risk assets with cautious optimism.

At their Thursday close, the benchmark yield was 1.4926. It had touched a high of 1.5010% less than one week ago as investors sold bonds to offset the risk-on sentiment. [UST/]

Similar to the trend above, bitcoin rose 4.5% last Thursday. This was its highest day in two weeks. Bitcoin traded at just $51,000 on Friday, holding onto these gains.

As institutional investors gain more influence, trading patterns of the largest cryptocurrency in the world are becoming closer to traditional market risk moves.

On Friday, oil prices plunged in holiday-shorted trade. This was despite a 3-day rally. Oil futures dropped 0.47% to $76.49/barrel. U.S. markets remain closed. [O/R]

A weaker dollar contributed to an increase of 0.6% per day and 1.15% over the week, to $1.818/ounce. [GOL/]