Anxiety sentiment continues to dominate the market with investors preparing for aggressive rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Russia-Ukraine war affecting oil supplies.
As a result, profitable stocks in the banking, energy and mining sectors pushed Asian equity markets.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific broad index outside Japan rose 0.2%, driven by gains from the Australian mining and banking index while Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.7% at 27,276.
According to Manishi Raychaudhuri, BNP Paribas' Asia-Pacific equity strategist, investors are accepting the fact that central banks in developed markets will normalize the Fed's monetary policy as well as observe the impact of rising commodity prices that may be beneficial.
On the Wall Street market, tech stocks bounced from recent losses with the Dow Jones Industrial average index up 254.47 points or 0.74% at 34,807.46, the S&P 500 hitting 50.43 points or 1.13% at 4,511.61 and the Nasdaq Composite adding 270.36 points or 1.95% at 14,108.82.
The benchmark 10 -year yield jumped to a nearly 3 -year high of 2.3330%.
Fed funds futures are set at a 2/3 opportunity price for a 50 basis point rate hike in May.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's comments on Monday on the central bank's "firm" action to raise rates continue to be a concern for investors in addition to the Russian-Ukrainian war conflict.
Financial markets saw the Japanese Yen, which is sensitive to US rate hikes, fall 120 per dollar and last traded around the 119.90 level.
The euro fell 0.2% at $ 1.0992 while the dollar index that measures a number of other major currencies rose 98,758.
As for the commodity market, oil futures extended gains as news of some European Union (EU) members imposing sanctions on Russia and attacks on Saudi oil facilities has caused unrest in the market.
Brent crude rose 2.9% at $ 118.93 a barrel and U.S. crude added 2.4% at $ 114.85 a barrel.
Gold fell slightly at $ 1930.27 an ounce.
