TOKYO — Asian shares mainly rose on Thursday as market optimism got a benefit from record highs on Wall Street.
The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 39,439.50 in morning trading. The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 8,239.10. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3% to 2,601.66.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2.4% to 21,127.55 after a previous day of wild swings. Earlier this week the index fell more than 9%and recorded the biggest loss since the 2008 global financial crisis. The Shanghai Composite rose 2.0% to 3,324.61.
As hopes grew for stimulus measures to support the world’s second-largest economy, Chinese stocks tumbled earlier this week disappointment that there isn’t more to come. On the plus side was the Chinese Finance Ministry’s announcement that it will hold a briefing on Saturday that could provide details of planned government steps.
“There is still a glimmer of hope that Beijing will provide a fiscal stimulus in October to revive growth. In short, the market is on the cusp of the next big thing,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
On Wall Street, the S&The P 500 rose 0.7% to the top highest ever it was set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 431 points, or 1%, to hit its own record, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6%.
The lead was taken by cruise ship companies, whose customers can benefit from the surprisingly strong US labor market. Norwegian Cruise Line rose 10.9% after Citi analysts upgraded their shares, saying growth for the cruise industry “has real legs” through 2025 and beyond. Carnival rose 7% and Royal Caribbean Group gained 5.3%.
KinderCare Learning rose 8.9% in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. It has more than 2,400 early childhood education centers and before and after school locations across the country for children aged between six weeks and 12 years.
They helped offset a 3.4% slump for Boeing. The aerospace giant a contract offer withdrawn that would have given striking workers a 30% pay increase over four years, following the failure of labor negotiations.
Alphabet also kept the market’s gains in check after the heavyweight stock fell 1.5%. The US Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to close down his Google operations after the search engine was declared an illegal monopoly. A rupture is one of many possible solutions currently being investigated.
All in all, the S&The P500 rose 40.91 points to 5,792.04. The Dow Jones rose 431.63 to 42,512.00 and the Nasdaq index gained 108.70 to 18,291.62.
In the oil market, a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, recovered, rising 34 cents to $73.58 per barrel. Early this week, it briefly rose above $81. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 34 cents to $76.92 a barrel.
Earlier jumps on oil, driven by concerns about worsening tensions in the Middle East, had helped push the S&P500 on Monday to his biggest loss in a month.
On the bond market, the yield on ten-year government bonds rose from 4.01% at the end of Tuesday to 4.07%.
Treasury yields have fallen sharply recently, first falling sharply in the spring and summer and then rising over the past week or so.
They have been monitoring traders’ expectations about what the Federal Reserve is likely to do with the overnight interest rate. The central bank is just getting started lowering interest rates from a twenty-year high, as the focus is expanded to include: keep the economy going instead of ordinary fight against high inflation.
That caused the sharp rate cut over the summer, but recent reports show that the US economy remains stronger than expected.
In currency trading, the US dollar fell from 149.16 yen to 149.15 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0943, up from $1.0945.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.