Asia-Pacific markets are set to trade higher, tracking Wall Street gains

Good morning from Singapore! The weather forecast is a bit bleak, but Asia-Pacific markets appear set for a bright open.

Futures for Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 in Chicago were at 39,795, while their counterpart in Osaka last traded at 39,740 compared with the index’s last close of 39,646.36.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 24,032, pointing to a slightly higher open compared to the HSI’s last close of 24,028.37.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was also set to start the day slightly higher with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,600, compared to its last close of 8,589.2.

— Lee Ying Shan

The S&P 500 notched a new all-time closing high on Thursday. The broad market benchmark rose 0.27% and closed at 6,280.46.

The Nasdaq Composite also closed at a record high for the second day in a row, gaining 0.09% to end at 20,630.67.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 192.34 points, or 0.43%, to finish at 44,650.64.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Bitcoin climbed to new all-time high of $113,863.31 on Thursday, building on its previous record reached just a day earlier, as investors jumped into risk assets and liquidated short positions.

Over the past 24 hours, $318 million in short liquidations have occurred across centralized exchanges, according to CoinGlass.

Altcoins, or cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, joined the rally for a second day after many investors had started to lose hope that they would show signs of life this year. 

Bitcoin has traded in a tight range for several weeks despite billions of dollars flowing into bitcoin exchange traded funds, which has helped the price stay above the $100,000 level for more than 60 consecutive days. Public companies have also been on a bitcoin buying spree and outpaced bitcoin ETF inflows in the second quarter.

Read the full story here.

— Tanaya Macheel