Japanese stocks extended gains at their highest level since 2007 as the dollar traded near a two-month high against the yen and maintained its advance versus the euro.
Copper futures fell and gold led precious metals lower.
The Topix index rose a seventh day, gaining 0.6 percent by 9:58 a.m. in Tokyo.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.2 percent with markets in Hong Kong and South Korea closed with the U.S. and the U.K. for holidays Monday.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose a second day, extending gains at a one-month high.
Poland’s zloty declined after an opposition candidate unseated the president in a runoff vote.
Copper fell 0.3 percent in New York, while gold lost at least 0.2 percent with silver.
The dollar has regained some upward momentum amid faster- than-estimated U.S. inflation and after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expects to boost borrowing costs this year.
Japanese exports rose more than forecast in April, data Monday showed.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said his government had met the International Monetary Fund and the euro area three quarters of the way via its austerity measures and it was now up to creditors to “do their bit.”
“Inflation is speeding up a little in the U.S., and we can see the intention to raise rates sometime this year,” Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo said by phone.
“When we consider the U.S. versus Japan, rates will be higher in the States. Japan’s rate hikes and tapering will be further into the future.”
Japan Trade
The Topix extended its longest run of daily gains since February, with the yen trading at 121.68 per dollar following last week’s 1.9 percent decline.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.5 percent, also gaining for a seventh day.
Exports from Japan rose 8 percent in April amid an increase in shipments to the U.S., while imports shrunk by 4.2 percent, exceeding the 1.1 percent drop projected by economists though up from their 14.5 percent slump in March.
The Bloomberg dollar index rose 0.1 percent after jumping 0.8 percent Friday to its highest close since April 24.
Speaking in Providence, Rhode Island Friday, Yellen said that she anticipates raising rates this year if the economy meets her forecasts, with a gradual pace of tightening to follow.
While the U.S. labor market is nearing full strength, “we are not there yet,” she said.
Delaying the first increase until employment and inflation return to the Fed’s targets “would risk overheating the economy,” Yellen said.
CPI Gains
The core U.S. consumer-price index climbed 0.3 percent in April, the biggest gain since January 2013, data Friday showed.
Economists had projected the rate would hold at 0.2 percent.
Mixed economic reports have prompted investors to push back estimates for when the Fed will begin raising rates, helping to drive equities to all-time highs.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed in Monday trading, after the gauge slipped 0.2 percent from a record on Friday.
The euro dropped to its weakest level since April 29 against the dollar and lost 0.2 percent in a third day of losses versus the yen.
With Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras saying the country can’t absorb any more austerity measures, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis, who has no economic decision-making powers, went so far Sunday as to say Greece couldn’t and wouldn’t pay the IMF in June without a deal.
Sacrificial Cow
Greece has made “enormous strides” and it’s now up to the creditors to make some moves, Varoufakis said Sunday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“It is not in their interests as our creditors that the cow that produces the milk should be beaten into submission to the extent that the milk will not be enough for them to get their money back.”
The zloty slipped 0.5 percent against the euro, touching its weakest level in two months, and lost 0.8 percent to the dollar.
Polish opposition candidate Andrzej Duda defeated Bronislaw Komorowski in a presidential runoff, setting up a showdown for a fall election that may unseat one of Europe’s most economically successful governments.
Duda garnered 52 percent in Sunday’s vote, according to an Ipsos exit poll.
Komorowski, with 48 percent, conceded in a defeat that may shake up the government run by his Civic Platform allies.
Taiwan updates industrial output Monday and Singapore posts inflation data.
Copper futures for July delivery dropped to $2.8015 a pound on the Comex, following a 1.3 percent drop Friday.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reiterated its bearish call on the industrial metal in a May 22 report, saying prices will fall on weakening Chinese commodity demand and the stronger dollar.
The London Metal Exchange is closed for the U.K. holiday.
Gold lost 0.2 percent to $1,203.31 an ounce, extending last week’s 1.5 percent retreat. Silver slipped 0.3 percent to $17.0630 per ounce in a second day of declines.
Bloomberg
Mon May 25 2015
The dollar has regained some upward momentum amid faster- than-estimated U.S. inflation and after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expects to boost borrowing costs this year.-File Pic
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