SINGAPORE —Stocks in Japan looked set to rise at the open as investor sentiment in Asia-Pacific continued to be buoyed by a recent positive development on the coronavirus vaccine front.
Futures pointed to a higher open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 25,265 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 25,320. That compared against the Nikkei 225’s last close at 24,905.59.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia rose in early trade, with the S&P/ASX 200 up more than 1%.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent will be watched on Wednesday. That comes after China’s antitrust regulators announced draft rules on Tuesday singling out “internet platforms” for potential monopolistic behavior, according to Reuters.
Tech shares in the region will also be watched after their counterparts on Wall Street saw declines overnight.
Investor focus will likely remain on the coronavirus situation, following a positive announcement on Monday by Pfizer and BioNTech regarding a potential vaccine. Still, the number of cases globally continued to rise rapidly.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 262.95 points to close at 29,420.92. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, saw losses on the day. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 3,545.53 while the Nasdaq slid 1.4% to 11,553.86.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.717 after rising from levels below 92.4 earlier this week.
The Japanese yen traded at 105.26 per dollar, still off levels below 104.3 against the greenback seen earlier in the week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7282, higher than levels below $0.72 seen last week.
Source: CNBC