Asian stock markets opened the new trading week on a positive note due to a rise in interest rates in China over the weekend. As such, the Tokyo stock exchange rose by 0.8%, the Seoul exchange rose by 0.1%, Singapore climbed by 0.9%, Taiwan ascended by 0.5%, the Shanghai exchange rose by 0.7%, while the stock exchanges of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the Philippines were closed for Christmas.
As we mentioned, this Saturday the Chinese central bank announced that it would raise the interest rate for the second time running, after inflation in the country had risen to the second highest level in the last two years, due to predictions by the government that inflation would accelerate in the first half of 2011. The central bank raised the interest rate by 0.25% to 5.81% after having raised it for the first time in almost three years on October 19th.
In the American macroeconomic sphere, last Thursday the Department of Commerce announced that the volume of orders on non-perishable goods in the United States declined in November by 1.3% as compared to economists' predictions of a more moderate 0.5% decline. Furthermore, the Department stated that the amount of new unemployment claims in the United States had declined by 3,000 to a level of 420 thousand, as predicted by economists. Furthermore, the volume of new house sales in the United States had expanded last months by 5.5% as compared to October, to an annualized rate of 290 thousand homes. The rise was more moderate than predicted by economists, who predicted annualized rate of 300 thousand homes. The macroeconomic schedule for this week will be sparse due to Christmas celebrations around the globe.
