In Asian Equity Markets shares rose to their highest in eight months on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei hit its firmest in more than year and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose half a percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 eked a tiny extension to Monday’s big gains. The Kospi in South Korea jumped 0.60%. Shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics jumped by more than 2%, while chipmaker SK Hynix rose 3.39%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index bounced 0.61%. Shares of Meitu, a popular photo-editing app in China, jumped 6.29%, leading gains in tech stocks overall. Tencent was up 1.78%.

In Currency Markets the British pound fell on Tuesday after reports UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seeking a hard line on Britain’s transition period after Brexit, while the Aussie dollar dropped on a downbeat tone from the nation’s central bank. Sterling as as much as 0.7% to $1.3236, as its Friday’s 1-1/2-year peak of $1.3516 looked increasingly like a near-term peak following the massive relief rally after last week’s UK election. Johnson’s revised Withdrawal Agreement Bill would require the United Kingdom to have arrangements to leave the European Union be in place by Dec. 31 next year, UK broadcaster ITV reported on Monday.

In Commodities Markets oil prices trickled a fraction lower on Tuesday but remained near a three-month high as investors kept the faith with hopes that a fully fledged U.S.-China trade deal is in the pipeline, set to stoke oil demand in the world’s biggest economies. Brent crude oil futures had slipped by two cents to $65.32 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude was down four cents to $60.17 a barrel. Under a partial trade agreement announced last week, Washington will reduce some tariffs on Chinese imports in exchange for Chinese purchases of agricultural, manufactured and energy products increasing by about $200 billion over the next two years.

In US Equity Markets indices hit record highs for the third straight session on Monday, as upbeat domestic data from China lifted investor confidence and cooling trade tensions between Washington and Beijing removed one of the hurdles for global economic growth. The S&P 500 was up 0.89%, at 3,196.87 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.08%, at 8,829.43. Healthcare stocks got a boost from UnitedHealth Group and Amgen Inc, with both the companies rising over 3% after Goldman Sachs added them to its ‘conviction list’. Boeing Co fell 3.8%, capping gains on the Dow, after reports the planemaker was considering whether to cut or halt production of its grounded 737 MAX aircraft.

In Bond Markets Japanese government bond futures trimmed losses on Tuesday after an auction of 20-year debt was greeted with reasonably strong demand ahead of a Bank of Japan (BOJ) policy meeting that ends on Thursday. While the central bank is unlikely to announce any major policy changes, many investors stayed on the sidelines, awaiting its assessment of a recent rise in yields on 10-year bonds. Benchmark 10-year JGB futures fell 0.10 point to 152.22, with a trading volume of 14,674 lots. The 10-year JGB yield rose 1.5 basis points to minus 0.015%.