ASIA STOCKS FOLLOW U.S. GAINS BUOYED BY BIDEN PLAN

Asia stocks edged higher at the open Thursday as traders assessed U.S. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. Treasuries held losses, Andreea Papuc reported for Bloomberg News.

Shares rose in Japan and South Korea, while Australia had more modest gains. U.S. contracts were in the green after the S&P 500 Index closed higher and stronger technology stocks drove outperformance in the Nasdaq 100. The dollar stabilized after completing its best quarter in a year.

Ten-year Treasury yields were steady at 1.74% after sealing the worst quarterly performance since 1980 for the Bloomberg Barclays index tracking U.S. government bonds. Oil pared earlier losses after preliminary talks for a meeting of OPEC and its allies offered no signal of output plans.

S&P 500 futures were flat as of 9:07 a.m. in Tokyo. The S&P 500 Index increased 0.4%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5%. Topix index rose 0.9%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi index gained 0.6%.

For currencies, the yen traded at 110.77 per dollar. The offshore yuan was at 6.5649 per dollar. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was steady. The euro traded at $1.1724. For bonds, the yield on 10-year Treasuries held at 1.74%. Australia’s 10-year bond yield rose eight basis points to 1.87%. For commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $59.53 a barrel. Gold was at $1,706.88 an ounce, Romaine Bostick also reported for Bloomberg News.

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