Group of Seven Nations, Investors, and Japanese Stocks

On Tuesday, stocks across Asia strengthened their positions as investors are trying to learn more about the stimulus measures.

The good news comes from Japan, even though both indexes earlier declined more than 3% each during the Tuesday session. They bounced back by the end of the day. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.85% higher at 19,867.12. Another Japanese index Topix gained 1.28% to end its trading day at 1,406.68.

Mainland Chinese stocks saw gains on the day. For instance, the Shanghai composite rose 1.82% to around 12,996.76. At the same time, the Shenzhen composite gained 2.425% to approximately 1,887.34. The Shenzhen component added 2.64% to 11,403.47.

Moreover, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong soared 1.59% as of its final hour of trade. Shares of Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba rose 2.6% and 3.36%, respectively.

Importantly, South Korea’s Kospi index ended it’s trading day 0.42% higher at 1,962.93.

Oil prices, OPEC and stocks

Investors are closely monitoring the situation as apart from the coronavirus outbreak, another issue affected the stocks. This problem relates to the oil industry.

OPEC and its allies failed to strike a deal on production cuts, as Russian Federation rejected this deal. OPEC’s de-facto leader in offering massive discounts to its official selling prices for April.

Governments within the Group of Seven Nations are expected to announce stimulus measures in response to the global coronavirus outbreak.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Trump proposed to enact a 0% payroll tax rate for employers and employees for the rest of the year.

Payroll taxes are used to fund Medicare as well as Social Security. Employers and employees are paying this tax. However, this measure may not be enough to solve the issues.

Stocks not only in Asia but around the globe are struggling to cope with the coronavirus outbreak as well as the economic impact of this outbreak. In this situation, the U.S. government should think twice before enacting any measures.