Wall Street climbed on Thursday ahead of Asia’s Friday trading day as markets weighed the benefits U.S. companies would gain as a result of lower corporate taxes.

Several major U.S. corporations revealed details on how they would spend savings that a recently passed tax bill would bring about. Among those spending measures were wage increases and employee bonuses.

The bill, which includes a provision to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, is likely to be signed by President Donald Trump at the beginning of the new year.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed a stop-gap spending bill that would help to avoid a government shutdown. The bill is expected to be voted on by the Senate late on Thursday U.S. time.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 55.64 points, or 0.23 percent, to close at 24,782.29, the S&P 500 edged higher by 0.2 percent to end at 2,684.57 and the Nasdaq composite crept higher by 0.06 percent to finish the session at 6,965.36.

Markets were also supported by robust U.S. growth data, which showed the U.S. economy grew 3.2 percent in the third quarter. That was a slight downward revision compared to the 3.3 percent reported in November, but remained the fastest rate of growth seen in longer than two years, Reuters said.

Elsewhere, the euro’s three-day ascent against the dollar was stopped in its tracks as Catalonia went to the polls to vote in a regional election. The election had been called after Spain’s government sacked the regional parliament when the latter declared its independence in October.

Pro-independence parties are set to win a majority of the seats in the assembly, with 96 percent of votes tallied so far, Reuters reported. The common currency traded at $1.1866 at 7:22 a.m. HK/SIN.

Back in Asia, Japanese shares looked set to open little changed. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were 0.16 percent lower at 22,830 and Osaka futures were off 0.07 percent at 22,850.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 edged up by 0.27 percent in early morning trade.

In currencies, the dollar drifted lower against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index at 93.301 at 7:03 a.m. HK/SIN. The greenback also edged down against the yen, fetching 113.35 yen after climbing as high as 113.63 in the session.

The Canadian dollar rose to its highest levels in more than two weeks following the release of better-than-expected inflation and retail sales numbers. The loonie traded at $1.2737 to the dollar at 7:06 a.m. HK/SIN after touching a high of $1.2696.

The economic calendar for Friday was light on data releases ahead of the festive period (all times in HK/SIN):

• 4:00 p.m.: Taiwan unemployment rate, industrial production and retail sales
• 7:30 p.m.: India foreign exchange reserves