The DOW Jones and S&P 500 were continued to rise in yesterday's trading session. The DOW Jones closed at 17,652.79, a plus of 0.23% scoring a new record high boosted by Wal-Mart gains whereas the S&P500 closed little changed with a plus of +0.05% at 2,039.33 points, weighed down by energy shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.22%, China's Shanghai Composite lost -0.26% closing at 2,479.18 points on the last trading day before the start of the trading link between Honk Kong and Shanghai. Chinese data published yesterday showed a slowdown with Industrial Production growing 7.7%, below forecast at 8.0% and Fixed Asset Investment growth at 15.9% also below its forecast of 16.0%. Retail sales declined to a growth of 11.5%, the lowest rate since 2006.

Japan's Nikkei closed with a gain of +0.56% at 17,490.83 fuelled by expectations that Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will postpone the scheduled sales tax hike and rumours about snap elections being held in December.