Asian Markets Trade Mostly Higher

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Friday, despite the negative cues from Wall Street overnight, boosted by strong gains in materials and energy stocks on firm metal and crude oil prices. An unexpected decline by US weekly jobless claims also seemingly provided support for the US Fed's measured approach to lower interest rates. Asian markets ended mostly lower on Thursday.

The Australian stock market is notably higher on Friday, extending the gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving up to well above the 8,200 level, with gains across most sectors led by gold miners and technology stocks. Iron ore miners were the only weak spot.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 43.60 points or 0.53 percent to 8,244.80, after touching a high of 8,249.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 43.30 points or 0.51 percent to 8,508.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources are edging down 0.5 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is losing almost 1 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Woodside Energy and Beach energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Santos is adding more than 1 percent. Origin Energy is flat.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block, WiseTech Global and Xero are edging up 0.2 to 0.5 percent each, while Zip is gaining 1.5 percent and Appen is adding almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are gaining almost 1 percent each, while ANZ Banking is edging up 0.4 percent each. Gold miners are mostly higher. Evolution Mining and Northern Star Resources are gaining more than 2 percent each, while Resolute Mining and Gold Road Resources are adding almost 3 percent each. Newmont is advancing more than 3 percent.

In other news, shares in Paladin Energy are jumping almost 8 percent after its substantial holder, JPMorgan Chase & Co, increased its voting power to 7.55% from 6.48%.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.621 on Friday.

The Japanese market is closed for New Year Holidays on Friday. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Monday ahead of the holidays on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea and Hong Kong are up 1.9 and 1.1 percent, respectively. China, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan are higher by between 0.1 and 0.6 percent, while New Zealand and Malaysia are down 0.5 and 0.2 percent, respectively.

On Wall Street, stocks moved notably higher early in the session on Thursday but failed to sustain the upward move and fluctuated over the course of the trading day. The major averages swung back and forth across the unchanged line in morning trading before sliding more firmly into negative territory in the early afternoon only to regain ground in the latter part of the session.

The major averages eventually ended the day modestly lower. The Dow fell 151.95 points or 0.4 percent to 42,392.27, the Nasdaq dipped 30.00 points or 0.2 percent to 19,280.79 and the S&P 500 slipped 13.08 points or 0.2 percent to 5,868.55.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 1.1 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.2 percent.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday amid some hopes about the outlook for oil demand from the world's second largest economy and data showing a drop in crude inventories in the U.S. in the week ended December 27. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled higher by $1.41 or about 2 percent at $73.13 a barrel.