(fxcue news) - Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Tuesday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness. They also seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the US Fed's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday. While the Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement and officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates. The Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are all scheduled to announce their monetary policies later in the week. The Australian stock market is modestly higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 7,850 level, with a mixed performance across most sectors. Energy stocks were the only bright spot. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 17.80 points or 0.23 percent to 7,871.90, after touching a high of 7,922.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 17.80 points or 0.22 percent to 8,099.90. Australian stocks closed significantly higher on Monday. Among the major miners, BHP Group and Mineral Resources are edging down 0.3 to 0.5 percent each, while Fortescue Metals is declining almost 2 percent. Rio Tinto is edging up 0.1 percent. Oil stocks are mostly higher. Santos, Beach energy and Origin Energy are gaining almost 1 percent each, while Woodside Energy is edging up 0.3 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is gaining almost 3 percent and Xero is edging up 0.4 percent, while Appen is losing almost 5 percent, WiseTech Global is edging down 0.2 percent and Zip is declining more than 2 percent. Gold miners are mostly lower. Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent, Northern Star resources is edging down 0.2 percent and Resolute Mining is declining almost 2 percent, while Newmont is advancing more than 2 percent. Gold Road Resources is slipping almost 5 percent after it warned of lower expected output from its Gruyere joint venture in the March quarter. Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.1 percent and National Australia Bank is losing almost 1 percent, while Westpac and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each. In other news, shares in New Hope Corp. are jumping more than 8 percent after the coal miner grew interim profit by more than a third, boosted its dividend and announced a $100 million share buyback. In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.638 on Tuesday. The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with the Nikkei 225 moving well above the 37,900 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights, financial and technology stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 37,943.23, up 546.71 points or 1.46 percent, after touching a high of 38,004.20 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Monday. Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining almost 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding 1.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining more than 2 percent and Toyota is adding almost 3 percent. In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 2 percent, Tokyo Electron is adding more than 1 percent and Screen Holdings is advancing almost 2 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is gaining more than 2 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding almost 2 percent and Mizuho Financial is up almost 1 percent. The major exporters are mostly higher. Panasonic is gaining more than 2 percent, Canon is edging up 0.1 percent and Sony is adding more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is down almost 1 percent. Among the other major gainers, Yaskawa Electric and Tokio Marine are gaining almost 5 percent each, while Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi and Marubeni are adding more than 4 percent each. Renesas Electronics, Socionext, Tokyo Electric Power, CyberAgent, Itochu, Sumitomo, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Toyota Tsusho are all advancing almost 4 percent each. Mitsui Fudosan and M3 are up more than 3 percent each. Conversely, Tokyo Electric Power is losing more than 3 percent. In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 149 yen-range on Tuesday. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore are up 1.9 and 1.0 percent, respectively. China, South Korea and Taiwan are higher by between 0.1 and 0.4 percent each. New Zealand and Indonesia are down 0.5 and 2.4 percent, respectively. Malaysia is closed for Nuzul Al'Quran holiday. On Wall Street, stocks continued to regain ground during trading on Monday after rebounding last Friday but still posting steep weekly losses. The major averages all moved to the upside over the course of the session. The major averages pulled back well off their highs going into the end of trading but remained in positive territory. The Dow jumped 353.44 points or 0.9 percent to 41,841.63, the S&P 500 climbed 36.18 points or 0.6 percent to 5,675.12 and the Nasdaq rose 54.58 points or 0.3 percent to 17,808.66. The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index increased by 0.7 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.6 percent. Crude oil prices rose on Monday on hopes of improved demand from China after plans to boost consumer spending, and on possible supply disruptions due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $0.40 or 0.6 percent at $67.58 a barrel.