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TOKYO, April 28 (AP) Asian stocks rose on Friday after Wall Street rallied for its best day since January.
Gains were more muted in Asian markets as traders waited to see what the Bank of Japan would do at its first policy meeting under Kazuo Ueda.
The central bank kept its ultra-loose policy unchanged, and the yen weakened sharply against the dollar. The dollar rose to 134.92 yen from 133.96 yen earlier in the day.
“Due to extremely high uncertainties in domestic and foreign economies and financial markets, the Bank will patiently continue monetary easing while responding flexibly to developments,” the BOJ said in a statement.
Rising prices put pressure on the central bank to tighten its ultra-loose monetary policy: Japan reported inflation at 3.5% in March, excluding the cost of volatile fresh food.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1 percent to 28,764.98 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.6 percent to 19,951.51.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.7 percent to 3,307.68, while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2 percent to 7,308.40.
Seoul’s Kospi index fell 0.1 percent to 2,491.50, while benchmarks in Southeast Asia also fell.
U.S. benchmarks rose on Thursday after Meta Platforms became the latest big technology company to beat profit forecasts.
The S&P 500 rose 2 percent to 4,135.35 and the Dow rose 1.6 percent to 33,826.16. The U.S. economy slowed more than expected in January-March but showed signs of resilience.
The Nasdaq Composite led the market with a 2.4% gain to 12,142.24.
Facebook’s parent company was the biggest gainer, rising 13.9 percent. Meta’s profit beat analysts’ expectations in the first three months of the year, and it beat forecasts for revenue as well.
It joined Microsoft and Alphabet, which reported better-than-expected results earlier in the week, and Amazon followed suit after the day’s close. They are one of the most influential stocks in the Wall Street indexes because they are among the largest.
Most companies have come in better than expected this earnings season so far. Shares of Hasbro rose 14.6 percent, while Comcast shares also topped Wall Street expectations, with shares up 10.3 percent. But expectations were generally low heading into this earnings season, amid persistently high inflation, much higher interest rates and a slowing economy.
A report on Thursday gave the first indication of the extent to which the U.S. economy is slowing: Annual growth in the first three months of 2023 is estimated to have fallen to 1.1% from 2.6% at the end of last year. That’s worse than expected, but the economy may be in better shape than it appears, as growth in consumer and other spending accelerates and much of the weakness is tied to businesses drawing down inventories.
However, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation has turned hotter than expected.
A separate report showed fewer workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, raising hopes that the labor market may remain resilient amid a slowdown in other areas.
Investors took the data to mean the Fed will see next week that the economy remains strong enough to raise rates again at its next meeting.
The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates at a breakneck pace since early last year, from record lows to the highest since 2007, in an attempt to rein in rising prices.
But high interest rates slow down the entire economy and hurt investment prices. They have hit certain sectors of the economy especially hard, including housing and manufacturing.
Banks are also under pressure. Wall Street has been particularly focused on First Republic Bank, whose stock has more than halved this week after it disclosed the amount of deposits withdrawn by customers after the second and third largest banks in U.S. history collapsed last month.
Its shares steadied slightly on Thursday, rising 8.8%.
The bigger concern is that the troubles in the banking sector could lead to a pullback in lending across the economy.
That has many investors bracing for a possible recession this year, which could mean a further hit to corporate profits.
Shares of Caterpillar , seen as a global economic bellwether, fell 0.9 percent even as the company reported stronger-than-expected profit and revenue for its latest quarter.
In other trading on Friday, U.S. benchmark crude rose 15 cents to $74.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 46 cents to $74.76 a barrel on Thursday.
International standard Brent crude rose 19 cents to $78.41 a barrel.
The euro fell to $1.1018 from $1.1026. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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