Investing.com - Asian stocks advanced in morning trade on Monday after the U.S. markets rose on Friday following comments by the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also up by 133.37 points.
Last Friday, Powell said during a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming last Friday that "further, gradual" rate hikes were likely in the future, noting the economy is "strong" and able to withstand tighter monetary policy.
In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.6% and 1.4% respectively by 9:50PM ET (01:50 GMT). Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also traded 1.4% higher.
The People’s Bank of China’s announcement last Friday was cited as supportive, as the central bank said banks would resume using the “counter-cyclical” factor when calculating the yuan’s daily reference rate. China had suspended use of the factor in January, when regulators became more comfortable with the yuan’s strength after several months of gains against the dollar.
“Any dollar-yuan rallies will be a lot less punchy and a lot more gradual, so it will have a dampening effect,” Bechtel said. “It provides stability to the entire Asian-EM complex. It does help cap the rally in the dollar, or at least stall it.”
The yuan has slid more than 6% against the greenback since mid-June.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.6% as the country’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to become longest-serving premier after announcing his candidacy for a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.3% following a week of political tumult that saw the Scott Morrison become the country's sixth prime minister. South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 0.1%.