Asian shares jump on hopes of bigger US fiscal stimulus measures
US House of Representatives voted to increase stimulus payments to qualifying Americans to $2,000 from $600.

Asian shares jumped on Tuesday, with Japanese stocks hitting a 29-year high, as hopes that a long-awaited pandemic relief package in the United States would be expanded and a Brexit trade deal supported investor risk appetites.
Japan’s Nikkei leapt 0.9 percent to its highest since March 1991, while Australian shares climbed 0.7 percent and futures for the S&P 500 index added 0.3 percent.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsUS stocks hit record highs after Trump signs COVID relief bill
Trump’s US COVID aid bill approval sends stocks higher
British pound slips below multi-year high after Brexit deal
The US House of Representatives had voted earlier to increase stimulus payments to qualified Americans to $2,000 from $600, sending the measure on to the Senate for a vote.
While it is not clear how the measure will fare in the Senate, President Donald Trump’s signing on Sunday of a $2.3 trillion pandemic bill, which included the $600 payments, had sent shares on Wall Street to record highs overnight as it increased optimism about an economic recovery.
“With the Brexit…and the US stimulus deal now in the rear-view mirror, there is a sense of relief that we have avoided the respective worst-case scenarios,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, a broker.
Firmer demand for riskier assets kept the US dollar, which is often seen as a “safe-haven” asset, on the back foot. It was down 0.02 percent against a basket of key global currencies.
Shorting the dollar – bets that it is likely to fall in value – has been a popular trade recently and calculations by Reuters based on data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday suggested this could endure. Short positions on the dollar swelled in the week ended December 21 to $26.6bn, the highest in three months.
The British pound softened to $1.3462 as investors continued to take profits in the currency following the confirmation last week of a trade UK-EU trade deal that was widely expected.
A sluggish dollar bolstered gold prices, which rose 0.4 percent to $1,878.76 an ounce.
Oil prices recovered a touch after falling overnight on concerns that new travel restrictions on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic would weaken fuel demand, and as the prospect of increased supply dragged on prices.
US crude was up 0.48 percent to $47.85 a barrel.