Asian shares mostly advance after Wall Street cruises to more records

Independent

2 days ago

Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday after Wall Street rose to records following better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies.
Japan's Nikkei 225 edged 0.1% lower to 39,854.28 as traders stayed on the sidelines ahead of an election for the upper house of parliament on Sunday that could wipe out the ruling coalition's upper house majority.
The government reported that core inflation excluding volatile food and energy prices rose to 3.3% in June from a year earlier, slowing from 3.7% in May but still above the central bank's 2% target.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.7% to 24,676.64, while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.3% to 3,528.90.
Taiwan's Taiex climbed 0.9%, helped by a 2.2% gain for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. On Thursday, TSMC reported its net income soared nearly 61% in the last quarter from a year earlier. The world's largest contract chip maker said it's seeing strong demand from artificial-intelligence and other customers. On Thursday, TSMC's stock that trades in the United States rose 3.4%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.5% to 8,765.00, and the Kospi in South Korea shed 0.6% to 3,173.69. India's Sensex shed 0.3%.
'Asia's riding the global rally wave, AI fever refuses to break, and even the Fed is making soothing noises,' Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary. 'But underneath all the sunshine is a market running hot, with volatility on sale and positioning still cautious.'
On Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to top its all-time high set a week ago, closing at 6,297.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 44,484.49, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7% to its own record set the day before, climbing to 20,885.65.
Trading was calmer than on Wednesday, when President Donald Trump rocked financial markets by saying he had discussed the 'concept' of firing the chair of the Federal Reserve, though he said he was unlikely to do so. Such a move could help Wall Street get the lower interest rates investors love, but would also risk a weakened Fed unable to make the unpopular moves needed to keep inflation under control.
Apart from TSMC, other stocks involved in AI also climbed. A 1% gain for Nvidia was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.
PepsiCo jumped 7.5% after delivering revenue and profit that topped Wall Street's expectations.
Treasury yields were mixed following several better-than-expected reports on the economy.
One said that shoppers upped their spending at U.S. retailers by more last month than economists expected. Such spending, along with a relatively solid jobs market, has helped keep the U.S. economy out of a recession.
A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could be a signal of limited layoffs. A third suggested unexpectedly strong growth in manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region.
Such solid data could keep the Federal Reserve on pause when it comes to interest rates. The Fed has been keeping rates steady this year, after cutting them at the end of last year. The Fed's chair, Jerome Powell, has been insisting that he wants to wait for more data about how Trump's tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move.
That's because while lower interest rates could boost the economy and prices for investments, they would also give inflation more fuel. Prices may already be starting to feel the upward effects of tariffs, based on the latest data. In other dealings on Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 33 cents to $66.56 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, also was up 33 cents, at $69.85 per barrel. The U.S. dollar edged slightly higher to 148.67 against the Japanese yen from 148.61. The euro rose to $1.1623 from $1.1596. ___ AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.