Markets in Asia climb despite softer US lead (CNBC)

• Asian shares mostly climbed on Thursday after last session’s rally faltered late in the day.
• U.S. indexes pared early gains following a rise in the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note.
• The dollar paused after rising against a basket of currencies overnight, but remained above the 89 handle.

Most Asian indexes climbed early on Thursday after last session’s rally stalled late in the trading day.

Gains in the region followed the slightly lower close seen on Wall Street as U.S. bond yields rose.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 jumped 0.74 percent after closing barely in positive territory in the last session. Financials, automakers and manufacturers were firmly higher: Toyota rose 2.94 percent early in the day, Fanuc Manufacturing gained 2.67 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was up 1.53 percent.

Technology shares traded mostly higher: Sony rose 1.48 percent and Nikon advanced 2.09 percent — although Nintendo slipped 0.71 percent.

Reinsurance company Swiss Re said it was in talks with SoftBank over a “potential minority investment.” According to the Wall Street Journal, SoftBank is looking for an up to $10 billion stake in the company. Separately, the Japanese conglomerate announced on Wednesday it was making preparations to list its domestic telecommunications arm, SoftBank Corporation. Shares of SoftBank were lower by 0.76 percent.

In Seoul, the Kospi gained 0.85 percent after finishing in negative territory on Wednesday. Heavily weighted technology stocks gained in the morning, with Samsung Electronics trading higher by 1.48 percent following last session’s tumble.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 bucked the positive trend in the region to decline 0.12 percent, dragged lower by losses in the energy and materials sectors. Still, some of those losses were offset by gains in the heavily weighted financials sub-index, which rose 0.53 percent.

On the earnings front, corporates in the region due to report results include Nissan Motor, Nikon and Manulife Financial.

Corporate news
Shares of Rio Tinto fell 2.29 percent after the mining company on Wednesday announced a record full-year dividend of $5.2 billion, or $2.90 per share. That came as the company’s underlying earnings for 2017 rose 69 percent to $8.63 billion. The miner also announced a $1 billion share buyback.

Among other individual movers, Australia’s AMP jumped 4.27 percent after the wealth manager on Thursday announced a full-year profit of 1.04 billion Australian dollars ($813 million), which was more than double its profit the year before.

Singapore’s DBS Group on Thursday announced that its fourth-quarter profit rose 33 percent to 1.22 billion Singapore dollars ($905 million), in line with the S$1.2 billion projected in a Thomson Reuters poll.

US stocks finish in the red, yields rise
U.S. stocks finished lower on their Wednesday despite climbing earlier in the session, with the S&P 500 recording its largest one-day reversal since February 2016. The indexes pared early gains in afternoon trade following a rise in the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note.

The move higher in the yields also came amid news that U.S. Senate leaders had come to an agreement over a two-year budget agreement ahead of a Thursday deadline that would have resulted in a government shutdown.

Moves in the U.S. markets came after several volatile sessions of trade stemming from concerns over rising interest rates, which saw equities sharply sold off. Traders also blamed program trading for the steep declines.

Elsewhere, European markets finished higher on Wednesday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 ending the day higher by 2.06 percent.

Currency watch
The greenback took a pause after firming overnight. The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of rivals, traded at 90.267 at 8:29 a.m. HK/SIN, but remained above the 89 handle seen for most of the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, the dollar was mostly steady against the yen. The greenback had edged down against the yen overnight despite gaining against most other major currencies. The dollar traded at 109.30 yen at 8:21 a.m. HK/SIN.

The euro was stable at $1.2265, down from an overnight high of $1.2405. The currency’s decline in the last session came despite news of a breakthrough in coalition talks in Germany. Reuters said reports that Social Democrats leader Martin Schulz would not become finance minister of the country was a reason for softness in the currency.

On the commodities front, oil prices were slightly lower after touching their lowest levels in one month in the last session following data that showed U.S. crude inventories and production rose last week.

U.S. crude futures inched lower by 0.24 percent to trade at $61.64 per barrel after settling more than 2 percent lower on Wednesday. Brent crude futures settled 2 percent lower at $65.51 in the last session.