SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks rose in Friday morning trade after the S&P 500 rose to a record closing high overnight stateside.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.48% in morning trade while the Topix index gained 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.79%.
Mainland Chinese stocks saw muted moves in early trade, with the Shanghai composite little changed while the Shenzhen component edged slightly higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.48%.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia edged 0.24% higher.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.53% higher.
S&P 500 record close
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.58% to a new record closing high of 4,266.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 322.58 points to 34,196.82 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.69% to 14,369.71.
The gains stateside came after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the White House had reached an infrastructure deal after meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91.795 as it struggles to recover to levels above 92.1 seen earlier this week.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.88 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 110.4 seen against the greenback earlier in the trading week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7591, above levels below $0.756 seen earlier this week.
Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising 0.4% to $75.86 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.38% to $73.58 per barrel.
Source: CNBC