Investing.com - Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday, taking a cue from a strong showing on Wall Street as hopes grow anew for a massive spending and tax effort by the Trump administration.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 1.29% as Japanese banks rallied, with Mitsubishi UFJ up 3.29% and Mizuho gained 1.95%.
In Australia, the ASX 200 rose 1.14% with the four major banks gaining more than 1% each as shares of ANZ up 1.13%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia incresed 1.24%, Westpac added 1.27% and the National Australia Bank gained 1.25%.
Early in the Asian day, news came out that Snap priced its public offering at $17 a share on Wednesday At 200 million shares, raising $3.4 billion and attaining a value of nearly $24 billion in an initial public offering 10 times oversubscribed.
In Japan, the Nikkei manufacturing PMI for February edged up to 49.2 from 49.0.
Australia, building approvals for January jumped 1.8% month-on-month compared to a 0.4% decline seen and private house approvals slumped 3.0% following a 2.5% decline the previous month, while the trade balance surplus narrowed sharply to A$1.302 billion, compared to an expected $A$3.800 billion
Overnight, U.S. equities set a new all-time high close, after the Dow closed above 21,000 and the S&P 500 breached 5400 for the first time ever, buoyed by President Trump’s address to the U.S. Congress.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 303 points at 21,115.55 The S&P 500 gained 1.37% while the Nasdaq Composite surged to close at 5904.03 up 1.35%.
Trump’s highly-anticipated speech provided the backdrop for a positive start to the U.S. trading session, as investors shrugged off the lack of specific details on tax reform and deregulation and focused on the positive and measured tone of his message.
The Dow closed more than 300 points higher, helped by a broad based rally in Financials, mostly banks, as investors priced in the positive effect of higher interest rates on major U.S. banks, on the back of Hawkish comments from Fed Presidents Williams, Dudley and Harker on Tuesday.
Meanwhile top-tier economic data was closely monitored by investors, as February Manufacturing beat expectations while January U.S. construction spending was weaker than expected.
The February ISM manufacturing index rose to 57.7, which beat expectations of 56.0 reading while construction spending fell 1 percent in January, well below expectations of 0.6% increase.
The Fed’s Beige book was also in focus on Wednesday, and it showed that U.S. business were less optimistic on economic conditions than in the previous report in January.