Stocks edge up as Biden spending plan boosts U.S. outlook – Reuters

Stocks edge up as Biden spending plan boosts U.S. outlook – Reuters

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stocks crept higher on Thursday following their weakest quarter in a year, while higher Treasury yields supported the dollar, as investors parsed the details of a $2 trillion U.S. government spending plan and hoped for strong jobs data later in the week.FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a stock quotation board at a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan February 26, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File PhotoMSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6% after a modest drop on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.3% as a survey showed big manufacturers' mood bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels.Ten-year U.S. Treasuries, which had suffered their biggest selloff in a dozen years last quarter, remained under pressure and yields crept as high as 1.753%, while the dollar stood just shy of a one-year peak on the yen at 110.685.On the heels of a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, President Joe Biden on Wednesday outlined a broad plan to re-make the world's biggest economy including spending on roads, railways, broadband, clean energy and semiconductor manufacture.“We'll probably see more spending power from the stimulus than drag from the (accompanying) taxes,” said Jun Bei Liu, portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners in Sydney.“And if anything the