In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 99.77 points at 16,143.71, while the Nikkei was recently up 87.15 points at 14,524.39.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was at $73.91 a barrel, up 37 cents from $73.54 in late US trading overnight.
Early broker notes:
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto relatively cheap - Goldman Sachs
DEBENHAMS INITIATED 'NEUTRAL' AT GOLDMAN SACHS; PRICE TARGET 198P
TAYLOR WOODROW UPGRADED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' VS 'EQUAL-WEIGHT' AT MORGAN STANLEY
CENTRICA UPGRADED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' VS 'UNDERWEIGHT' AT JP MORGAN