Reuters - Share markets in Asia rose Wednesday on healthy U.S. manufacturing indicators and a rally in U.S. technology company shares. Market participants are expecting more policy support from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.25 percent while Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.35 percent.
Mainland China share prices slipped a little with the CSI300 index giving up 0.3 percent on caution after having hit a five-year high earlier this week.
On Wall Street overnight both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had record closings with gains of 0.75 percent and 1.39 percent, respectively, with the technology sector leading the charge.
Shares of Apple, the world's biggest company by market capitalization, rose just less than 4 percent to take its value to almost $2.3 trillion after a news report that the company had asked suppliers to make at least 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year.
U.S. manufacturing indicators showed expansion with the reading from the Institute for Supply Management hitting its highest in nearly two years.
Eurozone manufacturing activity also grew last month to stay on a path toward recovery though factory managers remain wary about spending and hiring more workers.
"At the moment the market is seeing a lot of positive momentum," according to Greg Boutle, U.S. head of equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas in New York. "If you get OK-to-good data and anything from the political landscape that looks like it's moving more toward a compromise - that's constructive for markets."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday he would telephone House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about stalled coronavirus aid negotiations.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Senate Republicans were likely to bring up a targeted COVID-19 relief bill next week.
The U.S. Federal Reserve dabbed in more support for the economy as Gov. Lael Brainard said the central bank would need to provide more stimulus to fulfil its promise of stronger job growth and higher inflation.
"We are entering the second stage of central bank-financed government stimulus," said Hiroshi Watanabe, senior economist at Sony Financial Holdings.
"This means U.S. nominal bond interest rates will be kept low and real interest rates will decline. The dollar will continue to fall while boosting various asset prices from gold to stocks."
Brainard's comments helped to push down the 10-year U.S. Treasurys yield to 0.680 percent from more than 0.7 percent. Last week it rose as high as 0.789 percent - the highest in two-and-a-half months.
The yield on inflation-protected U.S. Treasurys, or real U.S. yields, remained depressed at minus 1.092 percent - near a record low of minus 1.111 percent hit last month.
In the currency market, the strong manufacturing data helped the U.S. dollar claw back some losses after hitting a 28-month low against its basket of comparative currencies Tuesday.
The dollar index was at 92.386 compared with Tuesday's low of 91.737.
The euro changed hands at $1.1905 - flat on the day after touching above $1.20 for the first time since 2018 during Tuesday's trading.
The dollar was firm on the yen at 106.03 yen.
The Australian dollar lost 0.5 percent to $0.7348 after gross domestic product data showed the Australian economy suffered a deeper-than-expected 7 percent contraction in the last quarter - its worst economic downturn on record.
Brent crude futures rose 0.8 percent to $45.95 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 0.8 percent to $43.10 a barrel.
