U.S. stock indices traded higher on Thursday following oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 212.30 points, or 1.3%, to 16697.29. The S&P 500 gained 21.90 points, or 1.1%, to 1951.70 (all of its 10 sectors finished the session in the green). The Nasdaq Composite climbed 39.60 points, or 0.9%, to 4582.20.

Stocks were influenced by comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who said that any changes to monetary policy would largely depend on inflation expectations.

Meanwhile U.S. durable goods orders rose in January. Orders excluding defense equipment and commercial aircrafts rose by 3.9% after a 3.7% drop in December. A broader durable goods orders index rose by 4.9%.

This morning in Asia Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 1.73%, or 325.90 points, to 19,214.65. China Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.50%, or 13.61 points, to 2,754.86. Meanwhile the Nikkei rose 0.99%, or 160.28 points, to 16,300.62.

Asian stock indices rose on optimistic expectations regarding the G20 two-day meeting, which started today in Shanghai.

Japanese stocks rose amid gains in Wall Street and a weaker yen. The yen was partly influenced by domestic inflation data. The National CPI, which excludes prices of fresh food, but includes energy costs, was unchanged in January compared to the same period last year after gaining 0.1% in each of the two previous months. The reading was in line with expectations.