Japan's Nikkei 225 jumps more than 1%; Alibaba shares in Hong Kong plunge nearly 5%

SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific rose Friday morning, following an overnight bounce for stocks stateside.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.43% in morning trade — partially recovering from the more than 2% plunge seen on Thursday. The Topix index gained 1.24%. South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.78%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were higher in early trade, with the Shanghai composite rising 0.3% and Shenzhen component edging 0.355% higher.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.64%. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba plunged nearly 5% after the firm posted its first operating loss as a public company in its fiscal fourth quarter.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.74%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.74% higher.

Investors will also continue to monitor the coronavirus situation in India, with more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths reported for the second straight day on Thursday.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 433.79 points to close at 34,021.45 while the S&P 500 gained 1.22% to finish the trading day stateside at 4,112.50. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.72% to close at 13,124.99.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.738 after rising earlier this week from below 90.5.

The Japanese yen traded at 109.59 per dollar, after weakening earlier in the week from below 109 against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.7729, having declined from levels above $0.78 earlier this week.

Oil prices dipped in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.37% to $66.80 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slipped 0.28% to $63.64 per barrel.

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