Asian markets make tepid gains as US shutdown set to end

Stocks tiptoed forward at the start of Asian trading on Wednesday as the US Congress looked set to end the federal shutdown and traders looked for direction in the absence of clues from government data services.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1% in early trading as members of the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a measure that could restore funding to government agencies and end a shutdown that started on October 1 and is now the longest in US history.

Australian stocks led gains, advancing 0.2% as lithium miners drove commodity stocks higher, while Japan's Topix jumped 0.6%. "Sentiment improved after the US Senate passed a bill to end the longest US government shutdown on record," analysts from Westpac wrote in a research report. "The House is expected to approve the bill in the coming days."

S&P 500 e-mini futures were trading flat after a mixed session for US stocks on Tuesday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise 1.2% to reach a record close while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3%. In the absence of data from federal government agencies, traders focused on weekly jobs data from ADP on Tuesday which showed private employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week in the four weeks ending on October 25.