Asian equities advanced last night with the Nikkei (^N225) up 0.9% on the day in Japan, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) surged 2.1% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 1.1% higher by the end of the session.
It came after a bullish session on Wall Street Wednesday as the world’s largest tech stocks lifted global shares to new highs ahead of US inflation data due later today.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars, and most Asian currencies, rose against the greenback.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones (^DJI) rose 1.1%, closing at 39,721.36, and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 1% to 5,633.91. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index (^IXIC) gained 1.2% during the session to reach 18,647.45.
For the S&P 500, Wednesday marked its sixth straight record high close and the Nasdaq’s record closing high was its seventh in a row.
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s dovish-leaning comments sent yields of benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds lower.
A solid $39bn (£30bn) auction of Treasury bonds also marginally weighed on yields as well.
The yield on those 10-year bonds fell to 4.282% from 4.3% late on Tuesday.