Investors are watching oil prices after the recent surge

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose Thursday morning as investors will continue to watch oil prices after prices soared in recent days.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan jumped 1.12% in early trading while the Topix index climbed 1.27%. South Korea’s Kospi also gained 1.01%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.95%.

MSCI’s broadest Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity index traded up 0.49%.

Looking ahead, a private survey of Chinese services activity in February is set to be released on Thursday, with the Caixin/Markit Services PMI expected at 9:45 a.m. HK/SIN.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 596.40 points to 33,891.35. The S&P 500 gained 1.86% to 4,386.54 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.62% to 13,752.02.

the The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.385 – even higher from levels below 96.6 seen last week.

The Japanese yen was trading at 115.49 to the dollar, after weakening from less than 115.2 against the greenback yesterday. The Aussie dollar changed hands at $0.7292, largely holding onto gains from its rise below $0.72 earlier in the week.