Nikkei record, oil price, OPEC+

Japan’s Nikkei 225 crossed the 40,000 mark on Monday, gaining nearly 1% and setting a new record high after the S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite hit fresh all-time highs on Friday.

The broader Topix rose 0.2%, breaching 2,700 mark and also scaling a new peak.

Investors will also be watching China’s “Two Sessions” meetings today, with the CSI 300 edging 0.1% lower after opening higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.2%.

The “Two Sessions” refer to the concurrent annual meetings of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, and the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

At the meetings, China premier Li Qiang is expected to deliver the government’s work report, which details economic and policy goals for the world’s second-largest economy, including its gross domestic product growth target.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.2%, while the small cap Kosdaq was up 0.9%. Korean markets returned for trading after a long weekend.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat, after hitting an all-time closing high of 7,745.6 on Friday.

On the commodities front, oil prices rose slightly, with West Texas Intermediate crude prices briefly crossing the $80 mark for the first time in four months as oil heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia, alongside other key OPEC+ producers, said they would extend voluntary crude supply cuts until the end of the second quarter.

On Friday in the U.S., the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.14% to 16,274.94, notching a new high of 16,302.24 during the session. A day earlier, the index closed at its first record since November 2021.

The S&P 500 added 0.80% to 5,137.08 for its first close above the 5,100 threshold, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.23%.