Asia traded mostly higher Wednesday, following President Donald Trump 's address to U.S. lawmakers, which one analyst deemed "high on rhetoric and light on details."
Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, said the speech left markets a little "underwhelmed."
"I suspect...that most of what has been announced are already built into the price of the dollar today," he said.
The dollar index (STOXX: .DXY) climbed 0.58 percent to 101.71 at 3:20 p.m. HK/SIN Wednesday from an earlier low of 101.23.
Trump spoke on a variety of topics, including a recap of his efforts to develop a blueprint for corporate tax reform to increase America's competitiveness while also providing tax relief for the middle class.
U.S. futures were up Wednesday afternoon Asia time. The S&P e-mini futures were up 0.21 percent, the Nasdaq e-mini futures gained 0.17 percent and the Dow mini futures were up 0.19 percent.
Read more about Trump's address to Congress here .
Halley said the market's attention will now turn to Fed Chair Janet Yellen , who is scheduled to speak later in the week.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 (Nihon Keizai Shinbun: .N225) closed up 274.55 points, or 1.44 percent, at 19,393.54. Japanese export stocks received a boost from a relatively weaker yen (: OSEJPY=) that traded at 113.64 to the dollar at 3:12 p.m. HK/SIN after market close, weakening from levels below 112.20.
Among key exporters, Toyota (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7203.T-JP) shares rose 1.59 percent, Sony (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6758.T-JP) shares were up 1.47 percent and Panasonic (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6752.T-JP) added 2.6 percent.
In Australia, the benchmark ASX 200 (ASX: .AXJO) closed down 7.4 points, or 0.13 percent, at 5,704.8, where the energy sector fell 1.26 percent.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the country's fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.4 percent annually, beating expectations of a 1.9 percent increase by a Reuters poll.
Economists at the National Australia Bank said the solid economic momentum in the GDP figure will likely keep the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on the sidelines for much of 2017.
"While there is clearly spare capacity in labor and product markets, the RBA aims to balance its inflation and employment objectives against financial stability considerations, particularly given the surge in house prices in key markets in late 2016 amidst already high household debts," the economists said.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: .HSI) was up 0.19 percent in late-afternoon trade. Chinese mainland shares closed up, with the Shanghai (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) composite advancing 4.90 points, or 0.15 percent, to 3,246.63, and the Shenzhen (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJSZ) composite gained 7.54 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,008.86.