Reuters - Asia share indexes were set to rise Thursday after U.S. stocks closed at highs on hopes that U.S. President Joe Biden would put in place further economic stimulus to offset COVID-19 pandemic damage.
"Asian stocks are primed to follow their U.S. peers higher on optimism that U.S. federal spending will revive growth and corporate earnings," said Ryan Felsman, a senior economist at CommSec in Sydney. "That's all pointing to a positive day in Asia."
The Biden administration is expected to push through a nearly $2 trillion U.S. fiscal stimulus plan.
Felsman said technology stocks in Asia may also rise in response to positive news from Netflix Inc., whose shares rose 16.85% after the company said it would no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies.
MSCI's gauge of world stocks gained 0.07%.
Australia's ASX 200 jumped more than 0.80% in early trade Thursday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures rose 0.23%.
The Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.38% Wednesday, and the futures contract is up 0.74% from that close.
Along with Netflix, the rest of the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google owner Alphabet) group, scheduled to report results in the coming weeks, jumped. Alphabet Inc. shares rose 5.36%.
The dollar fell against most currencies Wednesday, as investors' risk appetite held up.
Oil prices rose on the hopes that Biden delivers on the economic stimulus, a move that will increase demand for oil.
U.S. Treasurys did not move much Wednesday, with the market looking past the inauguration at this point.
