(MENAFN- FxPro) Shares in Japan, Hong Kong and Sydney jumped, but Shanghai was off as investors looky ahead to the weekend referendum of Greek voters on a sovereign debt bailout package from international creditors and U.S. jobs data later in the day.
The Nikkei 225 was up 1.05% after the break, While the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.27% and the Hang Seng index gained 0.56%
However, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.24% in continued volatile trade.
A slew of jobs related data in the U.S. including the critical non-farm
payroll count, seen at a gain of 230,000 jobs for June, and an expected drop in unemployment to 5.4% from 5.5%, come a day early because the U.S. markets will be shut on Friday ahead of the Independence Day holiday on July 4.
Speculation that Greece would cancel a snap referendum due to be held on July 5 on whether to accept the terms proposed by lenders for extending the country's bailout was denied by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
In Japan, the June Tankan's corporate inflation outlook saw an average 1.4% consumer prices gain in 1 year, the same as March when companies on average revised down their longer-term inflation outlook slightly as energy and commodities markets remained weak.
In Australia, trade for May showed a deficit of A$2.75 billion, wider than the A$2.2 billion expected.
Overnight, U.S. stocks moved broadly higher on the first day of trading of the second half of the year, ahead of Thursday's release of the U.S. jobs report for June and a highly anticipated Greek referendum over the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite index each
rose moderately, bolstered by gains in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AAPL) while the S&P 500 moved higher one session after ending a quarter in negative territory for the first time in more than two years. While the Dow gained 138.40 or 0.79% in Wednesday's session, it still remained in negative territory for the year at 17,757.91. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, rose 26.25 or 0.53% to 5,013.12, while the S&P 500 gained 14.31 or 0.69% to 2,077.42, as nine of 10 sectors closed in the green.
The Institute for Supply Management said on Wednesday its index of purchasing managers rose to 53.5 last month from 52.8 in May. Analysts had expected a more modest uptick to 53.1.
Separately, payroll processing firm ADP reported on Wednesday that U.S. non-farm private employment rose by 237,000 last month, above expectations for an increase of 218,000.
The economy created 203,000 jobs in May, whose figure was upwardly revised from a previously reported increase of 201,000.
Tsipras sent new proposals as part of a request for a third bailout, indicating that he was prepared to accept the majority of spending cuts demanded by the country's creditors.
But German chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday there will be no negotiations on a new bailout for Greece before Sunday's referendum.
On Wednesday Greece became the first developed country to default on the International Monetary Fund after its second bailout program expired late Tuesday. The IMF confirmed that the Greek government failed to make a scheduled ‚¬1.6 billion loan repayment.
The fund said Greece can now only receive further funding after its arrears are cleared. Greece asked for a last-minute repayment extension on Tuesday, which the fund said it will consider "in due course."
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