Wall Street began the year on a strong note and the dollar slumped ahead of Asia’s Wednesday trading day.

Markets stateside closed with gains in the first trading session of the new year as technology names moved higher. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite hit closing highs, with the latter closing above the 7,000 mark for the first time.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.42 percent, or 104.79 points, to close at 24,824.01, the S&P 500 tacked on 0.83 percent to end at 2,695.81 and the Nasdaq composite bounced 1.5 percent to close at 7,006.9.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.26 percent early in the morning.

Japanese markets are closed on Wednesday for an exchange holiday.

The dollar tumbled to a more than three-month low against a basket of six currencies overnight. The dollar index traded at 91.875 at 6:46 a.m. HK/SIN, after trading at the 92 handle during the Asian trading session on Tuesday.

The slump in the U.S. currency came after the dollar index recorded its largest annual fall since 2003.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar fell to trade at 112.26.

The euro also resumed its ascent against the greenback, trading as high $1.2082 before paring some gains to fetch $1.2057.

After touching their highest levels since mid-2015, oil prices gave up some gains following the completion of repairs on pipelines in the U.K. and Libya, Reuters reported.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude shed 5 cents to settle at $60.37 per barrel and Brent crude futures lost 30 cents to settle at $66.57.

A high-profile proposed merger between U.S.-based MoneyGram International and Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial Services Group has fallen through after the companies failed to obtain regulatory approval. A joint statement from the companies said Ant Financial has paid a $30 million termination fee to MoneyGram following the termination.

The economic calendar for Wednesday is fairly light, with the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes during the U.S. session awaited by many investors (all times in HK/SIN):

• 11:30 a.m.: Thailand December inflation rate
• 4:30 p.m.: Hong Kong November retail sales