Asia-Pacific markets gain after Wall Street recovery

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose on Friday after a comeback on Wall Street as investors continued to digest the Fed's plans to fight inflation.

The Nikkei 225 gained 0.45% in early trade, while the Topix advanced 0.19%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.35%.

In South Korea, the Kospi climbed 0.38% and the Kosdaq added 0.70%.

Major stock indexes in the U.S. reversed losses to rise slightly at the close.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 87.06 points, or 0.25%, to 34,583.57 after losing as much as 300 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 was up 0.43% at 4,500.21, and the Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.06% to 13,897.30 following two straight days of losses.

Defensive stocks such as consumer staples and health care led the market comeback.

"The reaction to the Fed minutes early yesterday morning continued to dominate markets overnight," Taylor Nugent, an economist at the National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.

Weekly jobless claims in the U.S. fell to 166,000 last week, the lowest number in more than 53 years.

The 10-year Treasury yield touched 2.667%, its highest level since March 2019. It was last at 2.6334%, continuing to pull back.

Elsewhere, the Reserve Bank of India will meet for the last day of its monetary policy meetings. Economists predict that interest rates will only rise in August, according to a Reuters poll.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 99.837.

The Japanese yen traded at 124.03 per dollar, while the Australian dollar was at $0.7481.

U.S. crude futures rose 0.68% to trade at $96.68 per barrel early in Asia, while international benchmark Brent crude futures gained 0.48% to $101.06 per barrel.