Investing.com - Shares in Asia were mostly higher on Tuesday with a speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress by President Donald Trump in focus for market direction.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.70% as exporters advanced on the back of a relatively weaker yen , which traded at 112.63 to the dollar, weaker than 112.20 in the previous session. Toyota shares were up 0.28%, Nissan gained 0.95% and Honda advanced 0.89%, while Sony added 1.65%.
Takata shares climbed 0.18%, after the troubled air bag maker formally pleaded guilty to fraud Monday and agreed to pay a $1 billion penalty for concealing a deadly defect in millions of its air bags.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was flat and on tne Mainland the Shanghai composite up 0.28%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.37%.
Overnight, U.S. equities closed modestly higher on Monday, as investors waited for a key speech from President Donald Trump on tax reform, deregulation and infrastructure spending that have been major catalysts in the so-called ‘Trump rally’, which has seen U.S. equities climb as much as 10% since Trump’s election victory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 15 points at 20,837. The S&P 500 gained 0.1% while the Nasdaq Composite ticked higher to close at 5861.90 up 0.28%.
President Trump is set to address Congress on Tuesday, as investors eagerly await clues about the administration’s plans for tax reform and deregulation.
U.S. equities raced to a higher close, despite the release of mixed U.S. economic data, after U.S, pending home sales missed expectations while durable goods orders for January were better than expected.
The National Association of Realtors said pending home sales were down 2.8%, which missed analysts’ expectation of a 0.8% rise in January while the Commerce Department said that orders for durable goods rose 1.8% in January against expectations of 1.7% increase.
Elsewhere, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan reiterated his view that the rate hike should be sooner rather than later, which reinvigorated traders' hopes of a march rate hike.