Tokyo's main index climbs above its 100-day moving average
It's a solid day for Japanese stocks in general as the Nikkei posts gains on the back of a weaker yen, more upbeat trade headlines overnight, Fed chair Powell's reiteration of 'patience' and also as sentiment in Asian stocks improved following the inclusion of more China shares in the MSCI index.
The more upbeat tone in general is also seeing US equity futures gain by about 0.4% on the day with Asian equities generally performing well to start the new month. The more buoyed risk sentiment is underpinning yen pairs with USD/JPY now at 111.70, up by almost 0.3% on the day.
Looking ahead, European equities are likely to pick up from here so expect similar tones to prevail in the next two hours or so as the cash equity market opens in Europe.
