singapore shares in japan looked set for a higher thursday open following overnight gains on wall street investors will continue to monitor oil prices after prices surged in recent days the nikkei futures contract in chicago was at 26630 while its counterpart in osaka was at 26670 that compared against the nikkei 225s last close at 2639303 looking ahead a private survey of chinese services activity in february is set to be out on thursday with the caixinmarkit services purchasing managers index expected at 945 am hksin investors will continue monitoring movements in the oil market with crude prices spiking to their highest level in years on wednesday amid russias escalating war on ukraine opec and its allies decided wednesday to hold production steady despite the recent dramatic rise in oil prices with international benchmark brent crude futures now above 114 per barrel the us dollar index which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers was at 97357 still higher as compared with levels below 966 seen last week the japanese yen traded at 11547 per dollar having weakened yesterday from below 1152 against the greenback the australian dollar changed hands at 07292 largely holding on to gains from its climb below 072 earlier in the week