SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks rose in trading on Friday morning after the S&P 500 hit a record closing high overnight in the US.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.81% in early trading while the Topix index rose 0.85%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.32%.
Elsewhere, the S & P / ASX 200 climbed 0.41% higher in Australia.
MSCI’s broadest index for Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan traded 0.15% higher.
S&P 500 record
Overnight, the S&P 500 on Wall Street rose 0.58% to a new record closing high of 4,266.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322.58 points to 34,196.82 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.69% to 14,369.71.
The gains in the states came after President Joe Biden announced that the White House had signed an infrastructure deal after meeting a non-partisan group of senators.
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Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, stood at 91.835 as it struggled to rebound to levels above 92.1 reached earlier this week.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.93 per dollar, still weaker than the below 110.4 levels seen against the greenback earlier in the trading week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7584, up from below $ 0.756 earlier this week.
Oil prices barely changed on the morning of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude oil futures hovering above the flatline, trading at $ 75.57 a barrel. US crude oil futures were also largely unchanged at $ 73.29 a barrel.
