SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks rose Thursday morning after shares hit record highs on Wall Street when US President Joe Biden took office.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.79% while the Topix index rose 0.67%. The Bank of Japan is expected to release its monetary policy statement around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday to HK / SIN.
Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.42% while the Shenzhen component gained 0.986%. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was slightly higher.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.62%.
Australian stocks rose, with the S & P / ASX 200 gaining 0.53%.
According to seasonally adjusted estimates released Thursday by the country’s statistics bureau, the unemployment rate in Australia was 6.6% in December. That compares with expectations of 6.7% in a Reuters poll, following November’s unemployment rate of 6.8%.
MSCI’s broadest index for stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan rose 0.54%.
Currencies and oil
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its peers, closed at 90.334 after a previous high of 90.452.
The Japanese yen was trading at 103.54 per dollar, stronger than above 103.8 against the greenback at the beginning of the trading week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7766 after rising from below $ 0.77 levels earlier this week.
Oil prices were lower in Asia on the morning of trading hours and the international benchmark Brent crude oil futures fell 0.3% to $ 55.91 a barrel. US crude oil futures were down 0.39% to $ 53.10 a barrel.
What’s happening?
- Japan: Bank of Japan monetary policy statement at 11:00 AM HK / SIN
– CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.
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