OVERNIGHT

Well, the Fed spoke and apparently most markets liked what they heard.

Japanese stocks rallied on the news over night even in the face, as Reuters reported, of a worse that expected data on exports for November.

TOKYO, Dec 17 Japanese stocks rallied on Thursday morning after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a gradual tightening cycle with its first rate hike in nearly a decade, boosting sentiment and risk appetite enough for investors to shrug off worse-than-expected Japan export data for November.

The 3.3 percent fall in exports from a year earlier compared with a 1.5 percent decrease expected by economists in a Reuters poll, but the impact was softened as investors took the U.S. rate hike as a mark of confidence in the world's largest economy.

The Nikkei share average had gained 2.3 percent to 19,483.38 in midmorning trade. 

And Japanese exporters smiled when they saw the yen weaken further against the dollar.

The WSJ noted the following;  The Nikkei 225 was up 2.3% on Thursday morning, after a 2.6% rise on Wednesday. It is one of the best-performing markets in the world this year, rising almost 12%, compared with a flat performance for the S&P 500.

This partly reflects a view among investors that the Fed is doing theBank of Japan’s job for it, by driving up the dollar against the yen. A cheaper yen boosts competitiveness and flatters profits for Japan’s exporters.

This currency effect explains why Japanese equities have tended to outperform when the U.S. tightens monetary policy. In four such cycles since 1994, in the month following an initial rate increase by the Fed, Japanese equities have performed better than any other major market except rival Asian exporter Korea, according to Daiwa.

A dollar now buys 122.6 yen, compared with 121.5 yen at the start of November. But the yen remains stronger than it was in August, when a dollar was worth more than 125 yen.