Japan's Nikkei 225 soared nearly 300 points during Monday's early session while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 saw slight gains as markets across China and South Korea remained closed to mark the Chinese New Year that began over the weekend.
The day so far was marked by the Bank of Japan's minutes from the last policy meeting, which confirmed the bank's easing policy despite inflation reaching a four-decade high of 4% last month. Meanwhile, a report from the Wall Street Journal claimed the Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of rate hikes from early February, pushing somewhat positive sentiment.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 1.13% or 299 points at 3:35 am CET, recovering some losses made in the second half of December. The dollar meanwhile lost 0.33% against the yen to sell for 129.1595 and hover around a 10-day average. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.09% at the same time.
