Asian shares mostly rise, cheered by a US rally and easing oil prices

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly rose in early Friday trading, getting a lift from a rally on Wall Street as well as declining oil prices.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.8% in early trading to 64,662.11, as the Bank of Japan ends a two-day monetary policy meeting to decide on interest rates.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.1% to 6,856.35. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose nearly 0.1% to 8,738.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.8% to 24,766.66, while the Shanghai Composite added nearly 0.8% to 3,905.34.

Falling oil prices and easing pressure from the bond market helped Wall Street reverse many of its losses from the prior day.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.1% for just its second rise in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 316 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.7%.

Wall Street stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil slid from the nearly $110 it reached earlier in the week on worries that the war with Iran will keep oil bottled up in the Middle East instead of going to customers worldwide.

In Asian trading, Brent, the international standard, lost 0.68% to $104.11 a barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude slid 0.54% to $101.36 a barrel.

Brent is still more expensive than the $72 per barrel that it cost earlier this summer, but the recent drop helped pull yields lower in the bond market and removed some pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.93% from 5.01% late Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised the short-term interest rate that it controls, the federal funds rate, by a quarter of a percentage point for its first hike in more than three years. Officials also signaled they may raise the federal funds rate one more time this year as they try to get high inflation in the U.S. under control.

The signals sent Wall Street on a roller coaster. Stocks initially remained higher for the day after the Fed made its announcement Wednesday. They then slid sharply before recovering a chunk of the losses before trading ended.

On the upside for markets, the shift to higher interest rates built confidence that the Fed is committed to getting inflation back to its target of 2%. On the downside for markets, higher rates undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 85.95 points to 7,637.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 316.14 to 51,778.04, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 439.87 to 26,418.30.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 156.15 Japanese yen from 155.95 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1480.

___

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.