Overnight

For the fourth straight session Japanese shares climbed as the Nikkei 220 benefited from a weaker yen and the upswing in the U.S. market, gaining 0.8% to 16,949.51 on the back of financials and exporters. Many investors will be waiting to see Friday's U.S. jobless claims figures.

The dollar helped out trading at 103.34 near it four week high of 103.57 hit Wednesday. Higher oil prices didn't hurt Asians shares either as as prices after the U.S. Energy Information Administration
announced stockpiles fell by 3 million barrels last week, the fifth unexpected weekly drawdown. Oil was initially up 2%, but later gave back some of those gains with Brent futures falling 0.62% from its highs to $51.54 a barrel. U.S.futures followed a similar pattern, dropping 0.66%, at $49.50 a barrel.

The Hang Send index edged slightly higher, 0.48%, at 23902.60; the ASX 200, up 0.56%, at 5483.70; the Shanghai Composite at 3005.51,ahead 0.23% and the Korean Kospi up 0.44% at 2062.02. Again, positive U.S. news released Wednesday helped with the September ISM non-manufacturing coming in stronger than expected at 57.1, compared with a Reuters poll estimate of 53. Factory orders also increased slightly in August, while the trade deficit in the U.S. widened more than expected in August, and mortgage applications increased 2.9 percent last week. In all it was an up day for Wall Street's three main markets with the Dow up 0.62% at 18,281.62, the S&P 500 gaining 0.43% to 2,159.73 and the Nasdaq higher by 0.5% to finished at 5,316.02. Gold held its ground at 1272.50 an ounce.