GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks set for strong start after day of gains on Wall Street

By Jessica DiNapoli
NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Asian markets were set to rise
on Thursday after U.S. stocks closed at record highs on hopes
that newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden would put in
place further economic stimulus to offset damage wreaked by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
"Asian stocks are primed to follow their U.S. peers higher
on optimism that U.S. federal spending will revive growth and
corporate earnings," said Ryan Felsman, a senior economist at
CommSec in Sydney. "That's all pointing to a positive day in
Asia."
The Biden administration is expected to push through a
nearly $2 trillion U.S. fiscal stimulus plan.
Felsman said tech stocks in Asia may also rise in response
to positive news from Netflix Inc NFLX.O , whose shares surged
16.85% after the company said it would no longer need to borrow
billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.07%.
Australia's ASX 200 .AXJO jumped more than 0.80% in early
trade Thursday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures .HSI HSIc1 rose
0.23%.
The Nikkei 225 index .N225 closed down 0.38% on Wednesday,
and the futures contract is up 0.74% from that close.
Along with Netflix, the rest of the FAANG group, scheduled
to report results in the coming weeks, jumped. Google parent
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O rose 5.36%. The dollar fell against most currencies on Wednesday, as
investors' risk appetite held up.
Oil prices rose on the hopes that Biden delivers on the
economic stimulus, a move that will increase demand for oil.
U.S. Treasuries did not move much on Wednesday, with the
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