Japan's Nikkei was up 0.36 per cent and e-mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.5 per cent. — Reuters picTOKYO, Feb 9 ― Asian stock markets rose today after a record-setting day on Wall Street, while Bitcoin paused for breath after an overnight endorsement from Tesla Inc sent the cryptocurrency up 20 per cent.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.32 per cent at 721.53 after climbing as high as 730.16 late last month.
Expectations have been building that inflation would pick up as governments and central banks continue massive spending and easy money policies until officials are certain that their economies will recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Tesla Inc said overnight it had invested around US$1.5 billion in the virtual currency and expects to accept it as payment for its cars in the future.