Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street after longer-dated United States Treasury yields retreated from multi-year highs.
By 11:55 am AEST (1:55 am GMT), Australia's S&P/ASX 200 had gained 0.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1% and South Korea's KOSPI 200 had surged 5.7%.
Among data releases, Japan's imports reached a monthly record in July as elevated oil prices pushed up energy costs and inflationary pressures, while exports also climbed to an all-time high amid a weaker yen and robust semiconductor-related demand.
Imports by value increased 27.8% from a year earlier to 12.1 trillion yen ($76.39 billion), according to data released on Thursday.
The result marked a fresh record for the second consecutive month and exceeded market expectations for a 26.5% increase.
Exports jumped 23.2% year-on-year to a record 11.5 trillion yen, surpassing the median market forecast for a 19.9% increase and accelerating from a 19.3% rise in June.
Strong demand linked to AI-related data centres supported exports, while the yen's sharp decline made Japanese goods more competitive for overseas buyers.
Meanwhile, Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.5% in July, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “In July, we recorded a 16,000 person fall in employment, whilst the number of unemployed people rose by 4,000.”
In the U.S. on Wednesday, major benchmarks finished slightly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each adding 0.2%.
In commodities, ICE Brent crude finished 0.7% higher at US$91.62 a barrel, while spot gold jumped 4.3% to settle at US$4,521.96 an ounce.
In China, the SSE Composite Index fell 2.4% to 3,894.4, while the CSI 300 lost 2.9% to 4,588.7.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.1% to 25,495.1, while India's BSE Sensex slipped 0.4% to 76,909.7.
European markets finished mixed on Wednesday. The UK's FTSE 100 gained 0.1% to 10,743.4, while Germany's DAX fell 0.1% to 26,091.3 and France's CAC 40 declined 0.1% to 8,501.9.
