Stock Market LIVE Updates, Thursday, October 3, 2024: Markets in Indian looked poised for a gap down start on Thursday, as indicated by GIFT Nifty futures–that were trading more than 250 points behind Nifty futures’ last close, at 25,706–as the conflict between Israel and Iran looked set for an escalation after Iran launched several missiles targeted at Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, gains in Asia were led by Japanese stocks, which were buoyed by the modest overnight uptick on Wall Street despite escalating tensions in the Middle East. The Nikkei 225 was up 2.21 per cent, while the broader Topix index rose by 2 per cent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down marginally by 0.07 per cent, while, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 2.35 per cent. 

In Asia, following a meeting with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stated that current economic conditions do not warrant another interest rate hike.

Investors in Asia are also anticipating a busy day of data releases. Australia’s Judo Bank Composite PMI for September fell to 49.6, down from 51.7 in August, indicating contraction. The services PMI also dipped to 50.5 from 52.5 in the previous month. 

Additionally, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is expected to release trade data for August, with economists predicting a surplus of 5.5 billion Australian dollars, down from AU$6.01 billion in July.

Other key data includes Japan’s PMI figures for September and Hong Kong’s August retail sales. 

Markets in mainland China will remain closed until October 8 for a week-long holiday, and South Korea is also closed Thursday for National Foundation Day.

That apart, MSCI’s global equities index was down slightly on Wednesday while the dollar rose and oil prices pared earlier gains, as investors digested US economic data and anxiously awaited Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack the previous day.

Oil prices rose on worries that further escalation in the Middle East could threaten oil supplies from the world’s top producing region, but gains were limited by a large build up in US crude inventories.

US President Joe Biden said he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites and urged Israel to act “proportionally” in response to Iran’s biggest ever direct attack on Israel. Iran, after firing ballistic missiles on Israel on Tuesday, said early Wednesday that its attack was finished barring further provocation.

The dollar hit a three-week high against the euro after the ADP national employment report showed US private payrolls increased more than expected in September ahead of Friday’s highly anticipated jobs data.

Longer-dated US Treasury yields rose after the data pointed to a stable labour market while investors monitored Middle East hostilities.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.55 points, or 0.09 per cent, to close at 42,196.52, the S&P 500 gained 0.01 per cent, to close at 5,709.54, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 14.76 points, or 0.08 per cent, to end at 17,925.12.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.04 per cent, to 845.49. Earlier the STOXX Europe 600 index closed up 0.05 per cent at 521.14.

In energy markets, US crude settled up 0.39 per cent at $70.10 a barrel and Brent ended the session at $73.90 per barrel, up 0.46 per cent on the day.

In Treasuries, the yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose 4 basis points to 3.783 per cent, from 3.743 per cent late on Tuesday, while the 30-year bond yield rose 4.9 basis points to 4.1299 per cent.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 1.4 basis points to 3.6352 per cent, from 3.621 per cent late on Tuesday.

A closely watched part of the US Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at a positive 14.6 basis points.

In currencies, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.34 per cent to 101.60.

In precious metals, spot gold fell 0.14 per cent to $2,659.22 an ounce. US gold futures fell 1.02 per cent to $2,640.00 an ounce.

(With inputs from Reuters.)