GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares make cautious gains after choppy Wall Street session

By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Asian stocks opened mostly
higher on Wednesday, tracking modest Wall Street gains as
prospects of an eventual victory against coronavirus shored up
recovery hopes, while tight supply expectations pushed oil
prices to their highest in a year.
Investors were betting that the incoming Biden
administration would ramp up U.S. distribution of coronavirus
vaccines, which would allow large parts of the U.S. economy to
reopen, Peter Essele, head of portfolio management at
Commonwealth Financial Network in Boston said.
"The amount of pent-up demand is slowly being unwound and
over the next year it is probably going to result in one the
strongest growth in 20 years and markets are pricing that in,"
Essele said.
"Right now, it's a race between cases and the vaccine and the
vaccine will ultimately win out and the curve will flatten out."
Asia's open, however, was mixed with Japan's Nikkei 225
.N225 up 0.11%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO down 0.1% and
South Korea's KOSPI .K11 0.64% higher.
On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated near unchanged for the
session, not far from record highs. The Dow .DJI rose 0.19%,
the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.04% and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 0.28%.
The 10-year U.S. yield touched its highest since March but
tightened to near flat on the day after a Treasury auction was
well-bid. The yield had risen sharply this year on expectations
of a massive stimulus package from the incoming Democratic
administration.
Democrats said they will give Republican President Donald
Trump one last chance on Tuesday to leave office days before his
term expires or face an unprecedented second impeachment over
his supporters' deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
An impeachment trial could proceed even after Trump leaves
office on Jan. 20. But analysts say they don't expect any
further political turmoil in Washington to affect markets.
"Markets since the election have been quite strong because
uncertainty factor has been removed," Essele said.
In oil markets, Brent crude prices hit their highest since
February as tighter supply and expectations of a drop in U.S.
inventories offset concerns over rising COVID-19 cases globally.
Saudi Arabia said it plans to cut output by an extra 1 million
barrels per day in February and March.
Brent LCOc1 was at $56.56, up 1.62% on the day, while U.S.
crude CLc1 recently rose 1.76% to $53.17 per barrel.
Benchmark U.S. government 10-year debt US10YT=RR last rose
1/32 in price to yield 1.1325%, from 1.134% late on Monday. The
yield hit 1.187% earlier in the session.
The U.S. dollar was down a day after hitting its highest
since December, and the tighter Treasury yields pushed the
greenback down further.
The dollar index =USD fell 0.463%, with the euro EUR= up
0.45% to $1.2204. The Japanese yen JPY= strengthened 0.49%
versus the greenback at 103.75 per dollar.
Safe-haven spot gold XAU= added 0.6% to $1,855.46 an
ounce. Silver XAG= gained 2.49% to $25.54.

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