By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up on Thursday morning, as progress was made, albeit slowly, on the U.S.’ debt-ceiling impasse.

U.S. share prices rose as progress on a U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yield was made. While an agreement would reduce the immediate threat of default, tensions among the Democrats and Republicans remain.

Japan’s jumped 1.39% by 9:50 PM ET (1:50 AM GMT) and South Korea’s rose 1.28%.

In Australia, the was up 0.58% while Hong Kong’s was down 0.57%.

Chinese markets were closed for a holiday, but on the U.S.-China relations front, U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to meet virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping before the end of 2021 gave investor sentiment a boost.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that the U.S. Is looking to China “to act responsibly and to deal effectively with any challenges,” as China Evergrande Continued problems with Group’s (HK.:) credit. However, he also criticized China’s recent military maneuvers around Taiwan.

The ongoing global energy crunch, which sent prices soaring up as much as 40% at one point, was tamed somewhat by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of help.

Investors remain cautious despite the positive developments. The U.S. Jobs Report, which is due Friday, will be available. Wednesday’s for September was a higher-than-expected 568,000.

Investors remain on edge as they calculate the risks, with the report providing clues to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s exact timeline to begin asset tapering.

“We have several things that we are watching right now, certainly the debt ceiling is one of them and that’s been contributing to the recent volatility,” Wells Fargo Bloomberg News: Tracie Million, global strategy head for asset allocation at Investment Institute (NYSE:), told Bloomberg.

“But we look for these 5% corrections to add money to the equity markets.”

Other news from central banks: The European Central Bank will be studying a new program for bond buying to stop market turmoil before it starts its asset tapering. On Friday, the European Central Bank will announce its policy decision.