Asian Markets Track Wall Street Higher

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Wednesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid optimism over the U.S. presidential election as early results show Republican candidate Donald Trump surging ahead of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Traders also remain cautious ahead of the US Fed's interest rate decision tomorrow. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday.

The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another 25 basis points, but traders will be looking to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of future rate cuts.

Australian shares are trading significantly higher on Wednesday, reversing the losses in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 8,200 level, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with gains across all sectors led by technology and financial stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 84.70 points or 1.04 percent to 8,216.50, after touching a high of 8,219.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 86.10 points or 1.03 percent to 8,473.90. Australian stocks ended notably lower on Tuesday.

Among major miners, BHP Group is gaining almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is adding more than 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is edging up 0.5 percent, while Mineral Resources is edging down 0.5 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy is edging up 0.1 percent and Origin Energy is gaining more than 1 percent, while Santos is edging down 0.1 percent. Beach energy is flat. In the tech space, Zip is surging almost 7 percent, Appen is advancing more than 6 percent, WiseTech Global is adding more than 1 percent and Xero is gaining more than 4 percent, while Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are gaining almost 1 percent each, while National Australia Bank is adding more than 1 percent and ANZ Banking is edging up 0.2 percent.

Among gold miners, Evolution Mining and Newmont are gaining more than 1 percent each, while Gold Road Resources and Northern Star Resources are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Resolute Mining is adding almost 1 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.656 on Wednesday.

The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Wednesday, adding to the gains in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is surging more than 2 percent to above the 39,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 39,341.44, up 866.54 points or 2.25 percent, after touching a high of 39,341.44 earlier. Japanese stocks ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining almost 1 percent, while Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing more than 5 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is gaining more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial are advancing almost 4 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 3 percent.

Among the major exporters, Sony is gaining more than 1 percent, Canon is edging up 0.2 percent and Mitsubishi Electric is advancing almost 2 percent, while Panasonic are edging down 0.3 percent.

Among other major gainers, DeNA, IHI and Resona Holdings are gaining more than 5 percent each, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries is adding almost 5 percent. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, TDK, CyberAgent and Japan Steel Works are adding more than 4 percent each, while Tosoh, Isetan Mitsukoshi, J. Front Retailing and Yamaha are advancing almost 4 percent each.

Conversely, Mercari is plummeting more than 14 percent and Konica Minolta is declining more than 3 percent.

In economic news, the services sector in Japan fell into contraction territory in October, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Wednesday with a services PMI of 49.7. That's down from 53.1 in September, and it falls beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Meanwhile, members of the Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Board agreed that Japan's economy has recovered modestly, and is expected to continue to do so, minutes from the board's September 19-20 monetary policy meeting revealed on Wednesday. At the meeting, the BoJ kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.25 percent, as widely expected. The BoJ ended its negative interest rate policy in March.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 153 yen-range on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan is up 1.0 percent, while New Zealand, China, South Korea and Malaysia are higher by between 0.1 and 0.5 percent each. Hong Kong and Indonesia are down 1.9 and 0.2 percent, respectively. Singapore is relatively flat.

On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of Monday's session before closing moderately lower but showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq helped lead the way higher.

The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Nasdaq surged 259.19 points or 1.4 percent to 18,439.17, the S&P 500 shot up 70.07 points or 1.2 percent to 5,782.76 and the Dow jumped 427.28 points or 1.0 percent to 42,221.88.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. The German DAX Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as traders reacted positively to OPEC's decision to delay production increases, while a weaker dollar also supported prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.52 or 0.73 percent at $71.99 a barrel.