Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Friday as markets looked set for positive finishes to the first trading week of 2018 ands looking ahead to US nonfarm payrolls for direction on Fed interest rate views.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.66%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.77%. Toyota advanced 1.47% and Sony jumped 2.63%, although SoftBank Group edged down 0.76%.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.23% and the Hang Seng index edged up 0.18% as stocks int he Chinese territory as stocks continued to rally in the New Year led by financials, technology names and property plays .
Overnight, Wall Street rallied for the third-straight day led by a rise in banks as traders made bullish bets that tax reform and further rate hikes would spur quarterly earnings growth in financials.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 25,075.13. The S&P 500 closed 0.40% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 7077.92, up 0.40%.
Ahead of the start of earnings season in earnest next week, when major banks are slated to release fourth quarter earnings, investors piled into financials betting that tax reform, and further rate hikes would boost growth.
Economic data suggesting the labor market remained robust added to positive sentiment on equities ahead of the release of nonfarm payrolls due Friday.
Private payrolls grew by 250,000 for December, a sharp increase from the 185,000 private jobs created in the previous month, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP and Moody's Analytics. That beat economists’ forecast of 191,000.