Chugging Higher

S&P 500 e-minis powered on to a fresh all-time high during Asia-Pac trade, supported by a light uptick in U.S. President Trump's polling statistics and some apparent support behind Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga, as the LDP Party looks for a replacement for PM Abe (Suga would be a continuity candidate).

• Familiar matters remain in the driving seat, which are outweighing a set of as familiar, but ever-growing, risk factors, which are deemed not to have reached a critical juncture as of yet.
• With the performance of the U.S. tech sector coming under ever increasing scrutiny it is worth flagging that Bank of America's weekly flow show report indicated that the size of the U.S. tech space (at least where equity markets are concerned) now tops the total size of EU equity markets (including Switzerland and the UK) for the first time.
• Elsewhere, reports noted that Warren Buffett bought stakes of slightly more than 5% in each of the five leading Japanese trading companies over a ~12-month period, providing a further leg of support for Japanese equity markets.
• Nikkei 225 +1.8%, Hang Seng +1.3%, CSI 300 +0.7%, ASX 200 unch.
• S&P 500 futures +17, DJIA futures +145, NASDAQ 100 futures +92.