By Kane Wu

HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Asian stocks were more stable on Tuesday after Wall Street reached record heights on the first day of 2022. However there are concerns that Omicron COVID-19 could slow down global economic recovery.

MSCI’s measure of Asia Pacific stocks other than Japan rose 0.67% during the morning session.

Australia’s rose 1.15% due to energy and mining stocks, while the 225 saw a 1.25% increase.

The benchmark CSI300 Index in Hong Kong and China opened 0.5% higher and 0.25% respectively.

Mizuho Bank released a Tuesday note saying that markets have retained the memories from 2021. They are now focusing on Fed rate increases leading to higher UST yields, underpinning USD strength and continued buoyancy in equities.

Wall Street’s major indexes set new closing records Monday, while Omicron virus of the coronavirus drove COVID-19 case numbers to record highs in the largest economy.

Markets will be focusing on U.S. earnings in the fourth quarter. John Milroy in Sydney, an OrdMinnett advisor, said: “We are convinced that the U.S. sees boom conditions as well as a tight labour market which will raise household incomes.”

“…investors keep a close eye on inflation to see how the Fed might respond, he stated.

It rose by 0.68% and gained 0.64%, while the increased 1.2%.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) on Monday became the first company to reach a $3 trillion stock market value while Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc, rose more than 13.5% after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly deliveries of its electric cars.

The S&P index surged nearly 28% last year, driving MSCI’s 50-country index of world stocks to its third consecutive year of double-digit gains.

Six-weeks ago, the benchmark U.S. 10-year yield rose to 1.6384%. Investors expect a number of rate increases this year in order to counter rising inflation.

After a nearly 2-year hiatus, commodity markets quickly recovered their momentum to close the year 2021.

On Tuesday, the price rose 0.57%, to close to $79.43 a barrel. It was a continuation of Monday’s gains. These gains were due to tight supply and expectations for a continued demand recovery by 2022. However, OPEC+ still expects to continue increasing production. The barrel price rose by 0.34% to $76.34 per barrel.

After falling by more than 1 percent on Monday, gold prices recovered. This was due to a rally in equities that pushed bullion into a higher risk position. Gained 0.14% to $1803.3 per ounce Tuesday morning