Shares in Asia mostly gained on Thursday following an overnight surge in stocks on Wall Street, with all three major indexes stateside posting gains of more than 4.9 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 3.53 percent in early trade while the Topix jumped 3.76 percent as the two indexes climbed for the second-straight day after their Christmas Day tumble.
In Australia, the ASX 200 rose around 1.45 percent in morning trade, with most sectors seeing gains.
Of note, the energy sector Down Under jumped around 3 percent, with shares of oil-related companies advancing. Santos rose 3.34 percent, Woodside Petroleum gained 3.72 percent and Beach Energy gained 2.28 percent.
Similar gains were seen in Japan, where Inpex advanced 5.46 percent, Fuji Oil gained 2.52 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration soared 7.16 percent.
Those moves came on the back of a strong rebound in oil prices on Wednesday, which saw both U.S. and international benchmark Brent crude post their largest one-day increase since Nov. 30, 2016, when OPEC signed a landmark agreement to cut production.
South Korea’s Kospi, however, bucked the overall trend to slip 0.22 percent.
The mainland Chinese markets, which have been closely watched as a result of Beijing’s trade spat with Washington, are set to open at 9:30 a.m. HK/SIN.
In market action stateside, stocks saw major gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest single-day point gain in history, jumping 1,086.25 points, or 4.98 percent, to close at 22,878.45. Wednesday’s gain also marked the biggest upside move on a percentage basis for the Dow since March 23, 2009, when it rose 5.8 percentage points.
The S&P 500 also catapulted 4.96 percent — its best day since March 2009 — to finish the trading day at 2,467.70. The Nasdaq Composite also had its best day since March 23, 2009, soaring 5.84 percent to close at 6,554.36.
Wednesday marked the biggest post-Christmas rally for U.S. stocks ever.
Because U.S. exchanges were closed Tuesday for the holiday, the moves on Wall Street followed Monday’s sharp sell-off, which sent the major indexes down more than 2 percent and ended with the S&P 500 falling into a bear market. The S&P 500 was down 20.06 percent from an intraday record high set on Sept. 21 before Wednesday’s sharp rebound.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.050 after touching an earlier low below 96.6.
The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe-haven currency, traded at 111.11 after touching highs above 110 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was at $0.7073 after seeing lows around the $0.703 handle yesterday.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.
