Japan, Australia Futures Climb on U.S. Earnings, Jobless Claims

By Patrick Rial

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese and Australian stock futures advanced as earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and falling U.S. jobless claims lifted confidence the global recession is easing.

U.S.-traded receipts of Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage, gained 3.4 percent from the closing share price in Tokyo yesterday. Canon Inc., the world’s largest seller of cameras, added 2.7 percent. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s No. 2 oil and gas producer, gained 1.5 percent in U.S. trading after crude prices climbed.

Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average expiring in June finished at 8,890 in Chicago, up from 8,750 in Osaka and 8,770 in Singapore. In New York, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 1.6 percent led by technology companies.

“We’re likely to follow the strength of the U.S. market today,” Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Tokyo-based Toyo Securities Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Next week we’ll see a variety of earnings releases, and that will color the market’s tone.

Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 1.1 percent to 3,827 in Sydney. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index climbed 0.3 percent in Wellington.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has rallied 26 percent from a more than five-year low reached on March 9. Earnings estimates for companies included in the benchmark have started to rise from this month after a year of falling forecasts. This week, the benchmark has added 1.1 percent for a sixth-consecutive gain. That’s the longest winning streak since December 2006.

Nokia, Google

JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, yesterday reported a 10 percent decline in first-quarter earnings to $2.14 billion, or 40 cents a share. That beat the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The Labor Department reported that new jobless claims decreased by 53,000 to 610,000 in the week ended April 11, the fewest since January. Crude oil for May delivery rose 1.5 percent to $49.98 a barrel in New York.

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, sparked an advance by technology companies after saying demand was stabilizing. Google Inc., the world’s most popular search engine, said first-quarter profit rose 8.9 percent, exceeding analysts’ estimates.

Toshiba Corp., Japan’s largest chipmaker, is likely to see a narrower loss than currently forecast, the Nikkei newspaper reported, as chip prices have stabilized.

Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan’s biggest shipping line, and its peers may get a boost after the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping costs, rose for a fourth day. The index climbed to the highest since March 31, led by a jump in rates to hire panamax vessels that haul iron ore and grains.

To contact the reporter for this story: Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net.