Global Equities Led By Japan Soar Higher

Asian stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday, led by a 2.15 percent gain in Japan's Nikkei index.

Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso said the government is prepared to intervene in the currency market if the nation's currency begins to hurt the economy.

"For Japan, excessive volatility in yen moves that affect Japan's trade, economic and fiscal policies - be it yen rises or yen falls - is undesirable. If such moves occur, Japan is ready to intervene in the market," Reuters quoted Aso as telling Japan's parliament.

"The weakening yen is acting as a boost to stocks," Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chiba-Gin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo told Bloomberg. "We're seeing some risk-on moves overall. The key going forward is whether we'll get a sense that all the negative earnings are over with now."

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Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.43 percent, India's Mumbai Sensex index gained 0.33 percent, Taiwan's TSEC index and Australia's ASX index both gained 0.30 percent and China's Shanghai index gained 0.02 percent.

European stocks were also mostly higher with four hours of trading remaining.

France's CAC index was higher by 0.72 percent, Germany's DAX index was higher by 0.38 percent and the UK's FTSE index was higher by 0.19 percent.

Oil prices also ticked higher Tuesday morning as Brent crude futures gained $0.75 to trade at $44.38 per barrel and U.S. crude futures gained $0.45 to trade at $43.89 a barrel.