By Ese Erheriene 

Asia-Pacific stock markets started higher Thursday, following declines a day earlier and muted action overnight on Wall Street.

As 10-year Treasury yields remain slightly below 3% and the U.S. dollar continues its rally, Korea's Kospi led the way with a 1% gain after four straight declines.

Samsung Electronics rebounded after weakness earlier this week due to worries about smartphone demand. It rose 2.7% following the release of first-quarter results. Sales of memory chips drove the company's fourth consecutive quarter of record operating profits, but investors are focused on how long the good times can keep rolling.

In Japan, the Nikkei rose 0.7% as the yen fell. The dollar moved closer to Yen110, a level not seen since early February.

Moves elsewhere in the region were generally less than 0.3%.

Overnight, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note moved above 3% for the first time since January 2014. For investors watching rising U.S. yields, the "gloom hand is overplayed" as American equity investors are showing broader confidence as earnings reports have generally been upbeat, said Stephen Innes, senior trader with Oanda.

"All this should instill a definite sense of calm" even as "massive regional" outflows have occurred this week, he added.

In other markets, bitcoin was recently around $8,700, according to CoinDesk.

Oil futures were up about 0.5% in Asia despite the dollar's gains and surprise increases last week in U.S. inventories.

Later today, market participants will be watching the European Central Bank's policy statement. This is an interim ECB meeting with no new forecasts, so the market shouldn't expect any key policy wording changes, National Australia Bank said.

Still, Mario Draghi's press conference could be key, with information on recent softer eurozone economic data, NAB adds.

Suryatapa Bhattacharya and James Glynn contributed to this article.

Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2018 21:54 ET (01:54 GMT)