Asian shares advanced on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei rising to a three-month high at 19,963 with a 0.60% gain. China's CSI300 for the biggest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen edged up 0.18%. Korea's KOSPI jumped to a 2-1\2 week high at 2,031 with a 1.10% profit. India's Nifty added 0.56%. Australian market is closed for Thanksgiving holiday.
Wall Street ended Wednesday flat in weak pre-holiday trading. Dow Jones added 1.20 points, or 0.01% to 17,813.39. NASDAQ rose 13.33 points, or 0.26% to 5,116.14, while S&P 500 inched down 0.27 points, or 0.01% to 2,088.87. American markets are closed today as well and most of tomorrow's afternoon for Thanksgiving.
Copper futures touched a ten-day high; adding $0.073, or 3.60% to $2.124 a pound. U.S. crude oil prices were upbeat as well, after crude inventories rose by a less-than-expected 1.0M. The crude futures rose 16 cents, or 0.38% to $43.20 a barrel. Brent futures for January went the other way however, losing 9 cents, or 0.21% to $46.17 a barrel.
Dollar was flat in thin trading because of the holiday; after its index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, touched an 8-1\2 month high yesterday at 100.17, before easing down to 99.80. Dollar edged up 0.02% against the beleaguered Euro to 1.0622. It rose a similar 0.02% against sterling to 1.5124.
Yen was on the charge, advancing 0.15% against the dollar to 122.57. It added 0.18% against sterling to 185.38. It rose 0.02% against Euro to 130.17, near a seven-month high reached yesterday.
Gold futures rose $2.90, or 0.27% to $1,072.90 an ounce, while silver futures gained 6 cents, or 0.42% to $14.21 an ounce.
From Japan, Household Spending is forecast to be flat in October as a year ago, after falling 0.4% y\y in September. Japanese unemployment rate is forecast to stay the same in October as September at 3.4%. Japan has been struggling with deflation and low work productivity for years; a lower result for the first survey, and a higher for the second would be negative for the yen.