Most markets in Asia were sharply higher.
The Nikkei rose 1.5% to 17,419. Bridgestone was up 1.5% to 2410. Canon was up 1.7% to 6540. Fuji Film was up .6% to 4830. Hitachi was up 3% to 878. Honda was up 1% to 4200. NEC was up 1.5% to 624. NTT was up .2% to 601000. Docomo was up .9% to 215000. Sharp was up 1.6% to 2290. Softbank was up 1.3% to 3120. Sony was up 1.5% to 3120. Toshiba was up 1.1% to 790. Toyota was up .8% to 7800. Yahoo Japan was up 1.6% to 41300.
The Hang Seng rose .6% to 19,829. Cathay Pacific was up 3.2% to 20.15. China Mobile was down 2.3% to 71.9. China Netcom was up 3% to 18.54. China Unicom was up 3.9% to 10.24. HSBC was up 1.4% to 136.1. PCCW was up 1.3% to 4.71.
The KOSPI was up .4% to 1,450.
The Straits Times was up 1.7% to 3,209.
The Shanghai Composite was up .5% to 3,071.
Data from Reuters.
Douglas A. McIntyre