Wall Street closed at record highs on Tuesday, led by gains in the financial sector as traders returned to riskier assets as concerns about hurricane damage and North Korean tensions continued to subside. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite all closed the day at record highs, despite the plunge in Apple’s share price after the release of the iPhone 8. The Dow closed up 0.28 percent and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both gained 0.34 percent on the day.

Asian markets tried to mimic the success of their U.S. counterparts on Wednesday morning, with mixed results. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.18 percent as of 1:03 p.m. HK/SIN. The Shanghai composite was down 0.09 percent and Australia’s ASX 200 was down 0.2 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit a one-month high earlier in the session, gaining 0.5 percent.

Currency Movements

The dollar remained solid against the yen on Wednesday, trading at 110.13 after hitting two-week highs of 110.295 earlier in the session. The pound hit one-year highs during Wednesday’s Asian session due to solid UK inflation reports and pressure on the Bank of England to do mre to support the currency. The sterling was up 0.17 percent against the dollar to $1.3304. The euro also gained against the dollar, trading at $1.1979. Data released on Tuesday showed that British inflation rose 2.9 percent in August from the previous year, more than forecast and well above the Bank of England’s 2 percent target. The next BoE policy meeting will be held tomorrow.