Asia markets were set for a higher open on Thursday following a muted performance on Wall Street overnight.
The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 24,290, while its counterpart in Osaka was at 24,320. The Nikkei 225 last closed at 24,110.96.
In Australia, the SPI futures contract was at 6,152.0 compared to the last close of the ASX 200 at 6,146.1.
China’s markets are closed for the Golden Week holidays.
In market action on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 54.45 points to close at 26,828.39. The index hit an all-time intraday high earlier in the trading day at 26,951.81. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 closed largely flat at 2,925.51 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.32 percent to end the trading day at approximately 8,025.09.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank was “a long way” from neutral on interest rates during a question-and-answer session with Judy Woodruff of Public Broadcasting Service.
Also on Wednesday, a report from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showed private payrolls in the U.S. increasing by 230,000 in September — the highest in seven months. This was compared to a number of 185,000 jobs expected by economists polled by Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters). The report is often seen as a preview to the government’s nonfarm payrolls report, which is set for release on Friday.
In currency news, the U.S. dollar index which tracks the greenback against a basket of peers was at 95.762 as of 7:11 a.m. HK/SIN, following its overnight rally.
The Japanese yen traded slightly stronger at 114.47 against the dollar, while the Australian dollar was largely flat at around $0.71, as of 7:13 a.m. HK/SIN.
Here is a look at the economic data being released in the trading day ahead:
- Australia — Trade data for August at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.
