ASIA MODERATELY UPSIDE , OIL CALM

ECONOMY

On Wednesday , Equity markets in Asia rose after upbeat earnings helped the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes reach record closing highs on Wall Street overnight, while oil retreated from its near six-month highs.
The gains followed a strong performance on Wall Street, driven by robust results from Coca-Cola, Twitter, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin.
S&P 500 e-mini stock futures were up 0.03% at 2,938.75, just short of a record high of 2,944.75 on October 3. Analyst that alongside better-than-feared corporate earnings, a more supportive policy environment is helping to boost risk appetites.
Oil prices had surged after the United States ended six months of waivers that allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes of Iranian oil.
Gulf OPEC members said that rather than offset any shortfall resulting from the U.S. decision on waivers, they would raise output only if there was demand.

The dollar hovered near a 22-month high against its peers on Wednesday, after strong U.S. housing data further eased concerns of a slowdown in the world's biggest economy.The U.S. dollar index, eased 0.03% to 97.606.
The euro, which has the largest weighting within the dollar index, was a touch lower at $1.1219 after shedding 0.25 percent the previous day. The European economy looks particularly weak relative to the U.S. economy and this highlights the euro's weakness.
The dollar was steady at 111.885 yen after suffering mild losses overnight, weighed by a decline in long-term Treasury yields.
U.S. Treasury yields ticked lower. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes yielded 2.5686% compared with a U.S. close of 2.57% on Tuesday, while the two-year yield, slipped to 2.3516%, compared with a U.S. close of 2.364%.

Oil prices inched lower on Wednesday on signs that global markets remain adequately supplied despite a jump to 2019 highs this week on Washington's push for tighter sanctions against Iran. Brent had given up some gains, trading down 0.54 percent at $74.11 per barrel. U.S. crude dipped 0.54 to $65.94 a barrel.
Spot gold fell about 0.1% to $1,271.07 per ounce.