Asia stocks at five-month high as fiscal cliff crisis ends | Fox Business

Asia stocks at five-month high as fiscal cliff crisis ends | Fox Business: "HONG KONG –  Asian stocks hit a five-month high and the dollar fell as a last-minute deal ended the U.S. "fiscal cliff" crisis that threatened a U.S. recession and roiled world financial markets.

The U.S. Congress approved a rare tax increase on Tuesday that will hit the nation's wealthiest households in a bipartisan budget deal that stops the world's largest economy from falling into recession.

Early on Tuesday the U.S. Senate passed a bill that aims to avoid the cliff's automatic implementation of $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases.

The bill's passage in Congress allayed earlier concerns over complaints from a number of Republicans that spending cuts were still not adequately addressed.

Asian stock markets cheered the developments as a major risk for investors, namely a slump in global growth, appeared to have receded for now."

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