Asian stocks move up as sentiment recovers

Asia stock markets were higher in early trading on Tuesday, following a strong lead from Wall Street’s top three indexes amid solid economic reports.

Earlier in the session, the Reserve Bank of Australia release its latest meeting minutes, showing the regulator is keeping an eye on labor markets in other major economies.

The bank’s November 7 minutes exposed that remain mainly stable in a context of full employment while noting "that in most advanced economies, growth in wages and hourly earnings had been low, despite ongoing reductions in spare capacity."

"[Policymakers] discussed the possibility that globalization and technology were leading wage growth to be less responsive to changes in the demand for labor, which could continue for a while," the minutes said.

In the United States, telecoms and financials performed the best on Monday, pushing top benchmarks to the upside, while healthcare retained gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added to 23,430.33. The S&P 500 was up 0.13 percent while the Nasdaq Composite ended at 6790.71, up 0.12 percent.

No reports came out of the world’s first economy. Market participants remained cautious about the tax bill promoted by the current administration. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that is expected to be voted on Thursday by the Senate.

Speculation over Trump’s tax reform has been weighing on market sentiment in the previous week as investors understood the bill suffered major changes from the original project presented by the administration.

In Europe, attention has been directed to Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to form a coalition government, increasing uncertainty in the region.

"My point of view is that new elections would be the better path," said Merkel at an interview with ARD television on Monday, adding she did not plan to govern in a minority government.

Australia ASX +16.20 +0.27% 6,044.20 CLOSED

Shanghai Comp +21.47 +0.63% 3,413.87 OPEN

Hang Seng Index +452.33 +1.55% 29,712.64 OPEN

Nikkei 225 +198.66 +0.89% 22,460.42 OPEN

TSEC 50 Index +117.48 +1.10% 10,782.03 CLOSED

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