Asian stocks rose except Japan's Nikkei-225, which fell 0.4 percent. Singapore's Straits Times index climbed 1.0 percent, South Korea's Kospi up 0.17 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.3 percent and China's Shanghai Composite rose 1.8 percent.

European Markets were mixed in intra-day trade. France's CAC-40 declined 0.29 percent, Germany's DAX slipped 0.05 percent and London's FTSE-100 rose 0.12 percent when report last came in.