Investing.com - Asian shares mostly gained on Wednesday with Shanghai bucking the trend as markets recovered from yesterday's rout.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.39%. Toyota rose 3.38%, Sony gained 2.36% and SoftBank Group soared 3.47%. In Japan, average cash earnings for December came in at a 0.7% rise as expected, down from 0.9% previously.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.90%.
In Greater China the Shanghai Composite fel 0.81% and the Hang Seng index rose 1.26%. Tencent jumped 3.41%. Heavily weighted financial names also recorded gains: HSBC rose 1.37%, China Construction Bank gained 1.32% and Bank of China soared 1.37%.
Wall Street closed sharply higher Tuesday as investors returned to take advantage of cheaper stocks following Monday’s steep selloff while signs of progress toward a budget deal eased uncertainty.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 24,914.49. The S&P 500 closed 1.75% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 7115.88, up 2.13%. The Dow Jones fell to an intraday low
of 23,784 before staging a remarkable 1,100 move upside to end the day 550 points higher.
“Senate Democratic leader Schumer and I had a good meeting this morning about a caps deal and the other issues we’ve been discussing for some months now, Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell told reporters.” “I‘m optimistic that very soon we’ll be able to reach an agreement.”
Signs of progress toward a budget deal come just two days before a stop-gap government funding measure – passed in January - is due to expire.
Also adding to positive sentiment on equities were reports that president Donald Trump is poised to unveil his infrastructure plan on Monday which aims to generate at least $1.5 trillion in investments.
In the wake of the selloff Monday, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said it would retain its year-end forecast for the Standard & Poor's 500 of 2,850 as selloff was "technical and positioning-driven rather than fundamentally-based."