DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: A rally in the Asian markets overnight.</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Dalton Tanonaka sums up the day now from our studios in Hong Kong. Good morning, Dalton.</s>DALTON TANONAKA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, David; good morning, Deborah. The Nasdaq's strength was finally able to boost major Asian markets. Solid gains in Japanese tech heavyweight Sony and NEC helped lift the Nikkei off a 27-month closing low. It gained more than 1 percent. Wireless giant NTT DoCoMo regained lost ground, up 1 percent as well. After the market closed, that company announced that it will be issuing 460,000 new shares, and that would raise nearly $7 billion to help fund overseas investments. But Japan's economic prospects aren't any brighter. Wholesale prices rose in 2000 for the first time in three years. But analysts say the slight increase isn't enough to ease fears of deflation. And that helped send the yen to a 17-month low of 118.05 against the dollar in intraday trading. But Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa says he's not worried, and remained optimistic about corporate Japan's growth, the yen settling at 118.14. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1 1/3 percent on the Nasdaq's momentum. And in South Korea, heavy overseas buying powered the Kospi more than 4 1/2 percent higher. And that is the trading day and week here in Asia. David and Deb, back to you in New York.</s>HAFFENREFFER: All right, Dalton, thank you very much.
Nasdaq Strength Boosts Major Asian Markets