Asian equity markets were mostly higher on Tuesday following another record close on Wall Street, but falling commodity prices weighed down Australian markets.
The S&P 500 and the Dow ended at fresh all-time highs on Monday with investors tracking corporate results as the earnings season starts to wind down. “The U.S. market just wants to go higher as earnings have been strong and we’re probably not going to get higher interest rates at least in the next six months,” said Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in a morning note.
Nikkei was 1% higher as Japanese shares rebounded from the one-week low in the previous session after September's current account balance rose 61.9 percent from a year earlier, a third straight month of surplus. The yen moved back to 115 per dollar, not far off from a seven-year peak of 115.6 hit last week, which also helped to boost sentiment. Sumitomo Metal Mining surged 7 percent after raising its full-year net profit forecast.
Shanghai rose 1.3% to its highest levels since November 2011 for the second consecutive session as more details emerged on Monday about the highly-anticipated Stock Connect program.
Japan’s Topix index added 0.5 percent. The nation’s current account surplus surged to 963 billion yen ($8.4 billion) in September, compared with analysts’ estimate of 537.7 billion yen. South Korea’s Kospi index was little changed. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index rose 0.6 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.2 percent.