Hong Kong, 25 April

 Asian markets were higher on Friday after Wall Street rallied for the third day, driven by hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut rates.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surged 1.9 per cent to 35,705.74 and the Kospi in South Korea gained 0.9 per cent to 2,546.15.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng picked up 0.7 per cent to 22,056.39, while the Shanghai Composite Index inched down 0.1 per cent to 3,295.78.

The rally was boosted by hopes that Trump was softening his approach on tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, but China denied Thursday it's involved in active trade negotiations with the US.

Tech stocks rose in China, with Lenovo Group rising 4.9 per cent while the Chinese search engine company Baidu added 4.7 per cent.

However, the shares of China's largest semiconductor foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, lost 2.4 per cent.

Taiwan's Taiex added 2 per cent. India's Sensex sank 1.4 per cent after tensions with Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack.

The market in Australia was closed because of Anzac Day.

Wall Street's rally kept rolling Thursday as better-than-expected profits for US companies piled up in reports mainly from tech companies like ServiceNow and Texas Instruments, offsetting the uncertainties in the retail sector.

Federal Reserve officials boosted expectations for interest rate cuts as they said that they would slash the rate as early as June if Trump's tariffs hurt the US economy and job market.

The S and P 500 charged 2 per cent higher to 5,484.77 and pulled within 11 per cent of its record set earlier this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 per cent to 40,093.40, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7 per cent to 17,166.04.

In other moves early Friday, US benchmark crude oil gained 35 cents to USD 63.14 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 30 cents to USD 66.85 per barrel.

The US dollar rose to 143.52 Japanese yen from 142.69 yen. The euro edged lower, to USD 1.1352 from USD 1.1391.