In Asian Equity Markets stocks traded mostly higher on Wednesday, as investor confidence stayed firm on the back of Wall Street’s advance following strong earnings. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose by 1.16 percent and the broader Topix added 0.83 percent. Gains were broad-based, with retailers, utilities and technology among the rising sectors. Across the Korean Strait, the benchmark Kospi advanced 1.23 percent, driven by gains seen in manufacturing stocks and brokerages, among others. The technology space was mixed, although index heavyweight Samsung Electronics jumped 2.56 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pared some of the prior session’s declines, last trading higher by by 1.07 percent.

In Currency Markets the US dollar edged up on Wednesday, as firm U.S. economic data supported the greenback against the yen and headline risks around U.S.-China trade relations and tensions in the Middle East appeared to take a backseat. The dollar rose 0.3 percent to 107.295 yen after falling to 106.885 on Tuesday. The euro was little changed at $1.2372. The pound was effectively flat at $1.4299, nudged away from a post-Brexit referendum 22-month high of $1.4377 scaled early on Tuesday by weaker-than-expected British wage data. The markets were still pricing in a more than an even chance of the Bank of England hiking interest rates in May, which had helped sterling advance aggressively this month.

In Commodities Markets oil prices edged up on Wednesday, lifted by a reported fall in U.S. crude inventories and by the ongoing risk of supply disruptions. Brent crude oil futures were at $71.90 per barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 33 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $66.85 a barrel. In the United States, crude inventories fell by 1 million barrels last week, to 428 million barrels, according to a weekly report by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday. Official weekly U.S. data will be published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

In US Equity Markets indexes rallied on Tuesday on broad-based gains while Netflix and UnitedHealth earnings impressed investors and boosted optimism about the U.S. corporate reporting season. Shares in Netflix, the first of Wall Street’s leading momentum stocks to report earnings, rose 9 percent to close at a record high after the video-streaming pioneer smashed analysts’ quarterly subscriber estimates. The S&P 500 gained 1.07 percent, to 2,706.39 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.74 percent, to 7,281.10. Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with the biggest boost coming from the technology index’s 2.2 percent gain. The consumer discretionary index rose 1.9 percent,

In Bond Markets Japanese government bond prices were little changed on Wednesday, with the debt market capped firmly as equities rallied and reduced investor demand for safe-haven assets. The five-year JGB yield was unchanged at minus 0.115 percent. The 10-year benchmark JGB yield was also flat, at 0.035 percent. The 30-year yield stood unchanged at 0.705 percent. JGBs received some support as the Bank of Japan conducted a regular debt-buying operation. The central bank bought 1.03 trillion yen ($9.60 billion) of one- to 10-year JGBs on Wednesday.