Asia to Provide Gauge of Mood After Block Trades: Markets Wrap

Asian markets Monday will bring the first response to a surge of block trades that wiped $35 billion from bellwether stocks, overshadowing a record close on Wall Street last week.

Equity futures earlier pointed higher in Japan and Australia, but weekend revelations about a blitz of deals that roiled stocks including Baidu Inc. and ViacomCBS Inc. have raised questions about who sold and whether more are coming. The family office of former Tiger Management trader Bill Hwang was behind unprecedented sales of some U.S. stocks Friday, according to two people directly familiar with the trades.

A late-session boost saw the S&P 500 Index climb the most in three weeks to end at a fresh all-time high, with energy producers and health companies among the best performers. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields rose to 1.68%.

“Shares remain at risk of further volatility from rising bond yields,” said Diana Mousina, senior economist at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., in a note. “But looking through the inevitable short-term noise, the combination of improving global growth helped by more stimulus, vaccines, negative real yields and still low interest rates augurs well for growth assets generally in 2021.”