Nishimura, manager for equity marketing at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Tokyo.
The U.S. Labor Department on Friday said the economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, far lower than the 75,000 job losses that economists polled by Thomson IFR Markets had expected.
In addition, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said Monday its non-manufacturing index rose
about 4 points to 52.0, which beat expectations.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was 0.9 percent higher at 14,179.49.
The Australian market also gained, with the All Ordinaries index up 0.2 percent at 5,789.5, while the S&P/ASX index was 0.1 percent higher at 5,704.6.
Focus on energy, metals
The strength in the Australian resources sector offset further weakness in the banking sector.
'We've seen base metal prices rally in London and also talk of strong negotiations over iron ore prices in China, which are driving the gains,' said Savanth Sebastian, an equities analyst at CommSec.
Sebastian said emerging iron ore producers such as Fortescue Metals, which ships its first ore to China this month, and Atlas Iron were in demand on talk that Chinese steelmakers may agree to price rises of more than 80 percent for ore sold under contract.
The steel mills are already paying much higher prices on the spot market so a large increase in contract prices can be justified, according to miners including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto which are leading the negotiations.
Fortescue gained 5.2 percent to A$9.08 and Atlas Iron was up 4.5 percent at A$4.18.
BHP was up 2.5 percent at A$45.53 and Rio Tinto gained 2.6 percent to A$145.62.
Energy stocks were also well supported. Woodside Petroleum, was up 1.6 percent at A$60.97 while second-ranked Santos gained 1.0 percent to A$18.23.
Sebastian said banks continued to suffer from the fallout of weaker-than-expected first-half earnings reported by Australia's fifth-largest bank, St George Bank, on Tuesday as well as concerns that more provisions will need to be made for bad debts in the second half. Macquarie Equities downgraded its recommendation on St George to 'underperform' from 'neutral.' The stock was down 2.5 percent at $26.34, adding to a 2.7 percent fall on Tuesday.
National Australia Bank, which reports its half-year results on Friday, was down 2.1 percent at A$39.76 while Commonwealth Bank was off 1.5 percent at A$42.62.
AGO Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
