Stocks rise in Asia after U.S. records, dollar weakens

Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday after a record-setting day on Wall Street, while bitcoin paused for breath after an overnight endorsement from Tesla Inc sent the cryptocurrency up 20%.

Oil also hit 13-month highs, helped by rising optimism about a return in fuel demand，

However, in a sign that positive sentiment may run out in European trading, eurostoxx futures were down 0.05%, London’s FTSE futures fell 0.12%, and E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were flat.

Back in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.37% to 722.95 after climbing as high as 730.16 late last month.

Gains were led by Chinese blue chips which were up 1.67%, while the Hong Kong benchmark rose 0.51% and Korea’s rose 0.27%, with chip giants benefiting from the bitcoin excitement.

Iris Pang chief economist for Greater China at ING said Chinese markets’ strong performance was a result of investors buying ahead of the Chinese New Year break, anticipating that prices would be higher after the holiday.

Chinese stock exchanges are closed for a week from Thursday.

Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.27%.

via Reuters