Win Streak May Continue For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long holiday weekend for Chuseok Thanksgiving Day, the South Korea stock market had moved higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 365 points or 5.8 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 7,080-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside as easing crude oil prices wrestle with rising treasury yields. The European and U.S. markets were mostly higher and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology, chemical, financial and retail sectors.

For the day, the index gained 63.01 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 7,080.92 after trading between 7,014.98 and 7,153.99. Volume was 217.4 million shares worth 20.8 trillion won. There were 546 decliners and 310 gainers.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday, dipped briefly but then bounced solidly higher for the rest of the day.

The Dow jumped 478.62 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 51,828.62, while the NASDAQ gained 129.32 points or 0.48 percent to close at 27,068.72 and the S&P 500 added 39.28 points or 0.51 percent to end at 7,743.41. For the week, the NASFAQ jumped 2.1 percent, the S&P added 1.2 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came amid a significant pullback by the price of crude oil, which had surged over the two previous sessions. U.S. crude oil futures have tumbled by more than 2 percent on the day after spiking by 4.5 percent over the past two days.

The sharp pullback by crude oil prices came as traders reacted to the latest reports about a potential deal to end the prolonged conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

Overall buying interest was subdued, however, as treasury yields saw further upside after surging over the two previous sessions. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note pulled back off its highs of the session but still ended the day at its highest closing level since July 2007.

The continued advance by treasuries came as worries about the outlook for inflation have helped solidify expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue raising interest rates next month. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 64.2 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by another quarter point at its late October meeting.