Stock market today: Asian shares rally, encouraged by Wall Street storming back from an early slide

TOKYO — Asian shares rose mainly on Thursday, boosted by gains on Wall Street, led by a handful of influential Big Tech companies.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 2.8% to 36,605.62 in early trading, although the sharp gains partly followed earlier sharp falls.

The cheap yen was a boon for some issues, as the value of foreign earnings rose when converted into yen. Toyota Motor Corp. rose 2.8%, while Nintendo Co. rose 1.2%.

In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 142.53 Japanese yen from 142.28. The euro was worth $1.1016, down slightly from $1.1017.

Shares in Nippon Steel Corp. were little changed after Keidanren, a group of top Japanese companies, wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressing concern about “political interference” in The proposed acquisition of US Steel Corp. by Nippon Steel. US steel issuance rose nearly 7% a day earlier.

“The U.S. investment climate will be severely damaged if such political interference continues,” said the letter, which was also signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Global Business Alliance, Alliance for Automotive Innovation and other groups.

Yellen oversees the administration’s committee reviewing the takeover, while the White House recently indicated it was prepared to block the takeover.

In the rest of the region, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 8,041.10. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.0% to 17,283.46, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed at 2,720.40.

On Wall Street, the S&The P 500 rose 1.1% after erasing a morning wipeout of 1.6%. A majority of the index’s stocks still ended lower for the day, but the performance of Nvidia and other tech stocks was enough to propel it to a third straight gain and back within 2% of its all-time high in July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 124 points, or 0.3%, after recovering from a 743-point decline. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.2%.

In the last government report on US inflationheadline inflation slowed to 2.5% in August from 2.9% in July, a touch better than expected. But prices rose more than expected from July to August, excluding food and energy, and economists say that may be a better predictor of where inflation is headed.

The data appeared to confirm that the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to cut its key interest rate at its meeting next week, the first cut in more than four years. One concern is that it could be too late, with American shoppers already struggling under the weight of high prices.

Big Tech has also helped Wall Street rise again. A handful of these giants were responsible for the largest share of the S&The P 500 returned earlier this year, largely due to the excitement surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence.

In addition to Nvidia’s 8.1% jump, gains of 2.8% for Amazon, 2.1% for Microsoft and 6.8% for Broadcom were the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

All in all, the S&The P 500 rose 58.61 points to 5,554.13. The Dow rose 124.75 points to 40,861.71 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 369.65 points to 17,395.53.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.66% from 3.64% late Tuesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury note, which more closely aligns with expectations for Fed action, rose more, to 3.65% from 3.59%.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude rose 19 cents to $67.50 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 26 cents to $70.87 a barrel.

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AP Business journalist Stan Choe contributed.