By Alun John

HONG KONG (Reuters – The global share rally continues in Asian early trading. On Thursday, the safe haven currency was weakening as the markets cheered on positive indicators about the effect of COVID-19’s omicron variation and U.S. economic statistics.

Gains of 0.3% were recorded by MSCI’s Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan, which rose 0.6%. This was a third consecutive session of gains following Monday’s jolt when markets felt the effects of fears over the new coronavirus strain. Investors turned to safer havens in order to gain confidence.

David Chao at Invesco Asia Pacific global market strategist Asia Pacific said, “The unpredictability of the pandemic’s path and its impacts on growth/inflation continue to dominate investor risk-aversion.”

The latest health data, both from the UK as well as other countries around the world suggest that it is very unlikely for the worst to happen: even though the transmission rates were higher, this strain seems less dangerous and more likely not to cause severe illnesses or death.

Research by London’s Imperial College on Wednesday found that the Omicron variation of COVID-19 patients are 40% to 45% less likely to need to be admitted to hospital than those with the Delta variant.

The overnight gain was 0.744% and the gain was 1.02%. After data showing that U.S. consumers confidence increased in December, the White House announced it would resume talks with Joe Manchin on a huge social spending bill and climate change legislation. [.N]

Despite both the Pacific and Asian markets seeing gains this week, MSCI’s broad Asian benchmark’s gains started from Monday’s low of the year, while U.S. benchmarks have surpassed last month’s record highs.

American economic growth is strong, but China has made sweeping changes to its regulations earlier in the year that have rattled shares across a range of industries including technology and property. This has driven out investment from Asia.

Hong Kong’s economy was hard hit. It fell 15% in 2021. That would have been its worst year ever since 2011.

The benchmark rose 0.45% on Thursday. However, index component JD (NASDAQ.com) shares fell as high as 9% following Tencent, China’s biggest shareholder, declaring that it will give the majority of its $16.4 million stake to its shareholders in the form of a dividend. [L4N2T802E]

The overnight low of 96.020 was reached for the first-time since Dec. 17th.

The recent losses are quite broad-based. For the past four sessions the euro gained, while the Australian dollar which is often used as a proxy for risk appetite has gained 1.1% over the week.

Last week, the benchmark yield for a 10-year bond was 1.4145%. This is comfortably within its current range.

Prices for oil rose in accordance with optimism over the world’s economy. Also, Wednesday’s larger-than expected drawdown in U.S. inventories helped to support this trend. [O/R]

Futures increased 0.3% to $75.53/barrel U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude Futures (WTI), rose 0.3% to $73.04.

The price was stable at $1,804 per ounce. This is higher than the $1,800 symbolic level. [GOL/]