Key Points

• Asian stocks rise as traders expect Fed easing.

• Regional indexes gain on improving investor sentiment.

• Markets benefit from cooling U.S. inflation signals.

Asian stocks went up on Friday, following a record-breaking day on Wall Street. Investors were still betting that the Federal Reserve would be more friendly in the coming months. Even though there were still worries about high prices in the tech sector after Oracle and Broadcom’s earnings were lower than expected, the market went up.

Markets ended a rough week on a stronger note, and traders are now waiting for delayed U.S. jobs data that could help them understand the Fed’s policy path through 2026. New numbers showing the biggest rise in first-time jobless claims in more than five years supported the idea that the job market is cooling down.

Fed signals keep the story of rising Asian stocks going

People thought Jerome Powell’s comments after Wednesday’s meeting were less hawkish than they had feared, even though the policy statement suggested that the Fed might take a break before making a fourth cut in a row. Analysts said that the three-way disagreement on the board made things even more unclear.

Tech worries continue as Asian stocks go up

Even though the mood was good, the rally happened at the same time as new warnings about AI-driven valuations that were too high. Broadcom’s earnings drop caused its stock to fall more than four percent in after-hours trading. This happened a day after Oracle reported lower revenue and higher spending on data centres to support AI growth.

Regional markets keep going up even though the signals are mixed

Investors kept buying, though. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, and Seoul all went up by more than one percent. Mumbai, Manila, Shanghai, and Wellington also went up a little, while Jakarta went down and Bangkok stayed about the same after Thailand dissolved its parliament before next year’s elections.

SoftBank’s stock rose by almost 4% after news that the company is looking to buy more companies, including Switch, a data centre operator, to strengthen its AI infrastructure.