Investing.com - Shares in Asia gained as markets welcomed harder sanctions on North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, thought caution ruled with the reclusive country yet to respond.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea at the weekend over its intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July. Reuters said the sanctions could slash the reclusive regime's $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.
In Australia, the ASX 200 climbed 0.86% with Commonwealth Bank reversing early losses of more than 0.8% to trade up 1.12%. The bank said a "coding error" on the software was responsible for the "vast majority" of anti-money laundering law breaches it was accused of last week by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.58% and South Korea's Kospi was up 0.53%. TheShanghai composite bucked the general upward trend, down 0.15%.
Last week, the Dow closed at a record high for the eighth-straight session on Friday, buoyed by better-than-expected jobs data, fuelling risk appetite among investors.
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, ahead of forecasts of 183,000 new jobs while the unemployment rate was unchanged at a 16-year low of 4.3%, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The closely watched wage number was unchanged from previous months, with average hourly earnings up 2.5%. The average work week also was unchanged at 34.5 hours.
Wage growth is being closely monitored by the Federal Reserve for evidence of continuing strength in the labor market and upward pressure on inflation.
The upbeat jobs report, renewed expectations the Federal Reserve would keep to its plan to hike rates later this year.
The positive end to the week for U.S. stocks comes amid growing political uncertainty in Washington, after the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, impaneled a grand jury to investigate Russia interference in the 2016 elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 22,0192. The S&P 500 traded 0.19% higher while the Nasdaq Composite traded at 6351.56, up 0.18%.