Asian Shares Climb On Robust US Earnings

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks rose broadly on Friday as Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet both beat Wall Street's Q1 expectations, offsetting Meta Platforms' disappointing forward guidance.

The yen hit a fresh 34-year low as the Bank of Japan ended its two-day policy meeting with no change to interest rates and the target policy rate.

Oil and gold traded higher in Asian trading as the dollar index stabilized around a two-week low following U.S. GDP surprise. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stocks posted strong gains after experts from international investment firms revised their outlook on Chinese stocks.

China's Shanghai Composite index rallied 1.17 percent to 3,088.64 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2.12 percent to 17,651.15.

Japanese markets advanced after the Bank of Japan expressed confidence that inflation was on track to durably hit 2 percent in coming years.

Market participants also reacted to Tokyo's inflation figures and comments by Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki that the country is concerned about negative effects of the weak yen.

The Nikkei average rose 0.81 percent to 37,934.76 and closed up 2.3 percent for the week. The broader Topix index settled 0.86 percent higher at 2,686.48. Tech and real estate stocks paced the gainers, with Tokyo Electron rising 1.9 percent and Mitsui Fudosan adding 3.6 percent.

Startup-investor SoftBank Group climbed 2.4 percent. Chip material maker Shin-Etsu Chemical slumped 6.4 percent after announcing a takeover offer for Mimasu Semiconductor Industry.

Seoul stocks closed sharply higher, led by tech and financial stocks. The Kospi average edged up 1.05 percent to 2,656.33. SK Hynix surged 4.2 percent, KB Financial soared 9.7 percent and Shinhan Financial climbed 7.5 percent.

Australian and New Zealand markets fell as trading resumed after the Anzac Day holiday on Thursday.

Australia's benchmark S&P ASX 200 dropped 1.39 percent to 7,575.90 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed 1.26 percent lower at 7,837.40.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P NZX-50 index fell 1.18 percent to 11,805.09.

U.S. stocks ended lower but off their day's lows overnight, following disappointing earnings updates from IBM and Meta Platforms.

Treasury yields climbed as new data showed slowing GDP growth but strong inflation, raising fears of stagflation.

Data showed that U.S. GDP slowed to 1.6 percent annualized in the first quarter after surging by 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Core inflation came in stronger at 3.7 percent in Q1, picking up from a 2 percent annualized rate and pushing out rate-cut bets to December.

The Dow gave up 1 percent, the-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.6 percent and the S&P 500 dipped half a percet.