Asia's stock markets have climbed this morning to a high of two and a half years based on the positive trend recorded yesterday at Wall Street. As such, Japan's Nikkei was up by 1.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed about 0.5%, the Shanghai stock exchange strengthened by about 1.3%, whereas the South Korean KRX climbed by 0.4%.
In the American macroeconomic sphere, ISM had reported yesterday that activity in the United States manufacturing sector had increased this December for the 17th month running, expanding at the highest rate in the last 7 month, climbing in December to a level of 57 points, as compared to 56.6 points in the previous month. This climb was predicted by economists. Construction expenditures in the United States grew for the third month running, this according to macroeconomic data published today in the United States.
The American Department of Commerce reported yesterday that construction expenditures in the United States rose in November by about 0.4%, a third monthly rise in a row. This rise was sharper than the 0.2% rise predicted by economists.
The European stock markets took 2011 by storm, recording an extremely hard daily rise due to sharper than expected rise in activity in the Eurozone's manufacturing sector. By the daily close, the Frankfurt exchange closed at a 1.1% rise, Paris leaped up by 2.5%, Milano climbed 1.3%, while no trade took place in London yesterday due to continued New Year's holidays.
As we said, the Market Economics Research Company announced yesterday that the index of manufacturing activity in the Eurozone rose in December to a level of 57.1 points, as compared to 55.3 in the previous months, beating preliminary estimates that only a 56.8 climb would occur.
