
TOKYO – Asian stock markets opened the week in positive territory Monday, with Japanese shares buoyed by a weaker yen and a string of bullish corporate earnings results.
Encouraging U.S. jobs data on Friday also lifted sentiment as several markets returned from the Lunar New Year holidays.
The Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.7 percent to 10,612.53. [...]

By Shayne Heffernan www.livetradingnews.com Last Week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said food prices have reached their highest level since it began measuring them in 1990, and pointed to the political problems that can spark.
“Not only is there a risk, but there have already been riots in some parts of the world because of [...]

Shayne Heffernan of Live Trading News has reported that In Jakarta, Indonesia officials have reported that gross domestic product grew 6.1 per cent last year, as South-east Asia’s biggest economy confirmed its position among the top ranks of emerging markets.
‘Our domestic growth in 2010 reached 6.1 per cent,’ Central Statistics Agency chairman Rusman Heriawan told [...]

TOKYO – Stocks in Asia rose in early trading Wednesday, following in the footsteps of shares in the U.S. that were boosted by strong earnings and positive economic data.
Oil prices hovered below $91 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as a report showed U.S. gasoline and crude supplies rose more than expected last week, suggesting a [...]

TOKYO – Asian shares moved higher Tuesday as overnight gains on Wall Street helped eased worries about political unrest in Egypt.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.3 percent to 10,272.69, rebounding from a sharp drop the previous day. Higher crude prices sent oil-related shares climbing.
Investors also bought companies seeing solid earnings. Hitachi Ltd. soared 2.7 [...]

TOKYO – Asian stock markets were mostly higher on Thursday, but their gains were modest amid speculation that China may raise interest rates ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next week in a bid to rein in inflation.
The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.1 percent to 2,712.63. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng [...]

(Reuters) – Asia, facing some of the highest food inflation in the world, may support the broad thrust of France’s push for G20 to tame volatile commodity prices but it is also seen as only part of the solution to ensuring the world can afford to eat.
South Korea said it supported [...]

TOKYO – Asian shares fell in early trading Friday, dragged again by concerns that China might take steps to cool its economic growth.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 0.9 percent to 10,344.43, and South Korea’s Kospi shed 1 percent to 2,086.34.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.8 percent to 4,747.30. Resource-related companies, which rely heavily on Chinese [...]

HANOI, Vietnam – China worked to calm nerves Tuesday among Asian neighbors jittery over its recent attempts to assert greater control over disputed waters, while its rival Washington stressed its national interest in keeping those seas free for commerce.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. has a stake in the growing number of disputes [...]

HANOI, Vietnam – Asia’s death toll from vicious rains spiked Thursday to nearly 140 as disaster officials reached previously isolated areas in Vietnam, while the worst flooding in parts of southern China in nearly a half-century forced 130,000 villagers to evacuate.
Security forces tried to speed recovery efforts in Indonesia, home to most of the fatalities [...]