Asian shares rise as US stocks stay near record highs after Fed rate cut

Asian shares, led by tech stocks, were mostly higher Thursday after Wall Street indexes churned between gains and losses but ultimately remained near their record levels following the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its main interest rate.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.3 per cent to 45,365.98, with tech-related stocks including Disco, Tokyo Electron and SoftBank among the gainers. The Bank of Japan started its two-day policy meeting, with rates expected to be left unchanged.

South Korea's Kospi added nearly 1.3 per cent to 3,455.98, with chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics among advancers.

The Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.2 per cent to 26,856.02, while the Shanghai Composite index added nearly 0.5 per cent to 3,893.95 on optimism over trade negotiations with the US and a potential TikTok agreement.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.5 per cent to 8,778.60 with data released Thursday showing the jobless rate was unchanged at 4.2 per cent in August, but headline employment fell by 5,400 while full-time jobs declined by 40,900.

India's BSE Sensex was up 0.4 per cent, while Taiwan's Taiex added 1.1 per cent.

On Wednesday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent and hung near its all-time high set at the start of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260 points, or 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3 per cent.

The swings came after the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate for the first time this year. That move was no surprise for Wall Street, which was widely expecting it. More important was the set of projections that Fed officials published showing where they expect interest rates to go in upcoming years.

That indicated the typical member sees the Fed cutting the federal funds rate two more times by the end of this year and once more in 2026.

Stocks initially rose following the release of the projections, which seemed to support Wall Street's widespread expectation for more cuts to interest rates. Such moves can give the economy a kickstart, and stock prices had already run to records on the bet that several cuts are on the way.

But stocks gave back gains after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that they're only projections. Conditions could change quickly, and Powell warned against taking the projections as gospel.

What's making things difficult for the Fed is that the job market is slowing as inflation is remaining stubbornly high. The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do that. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term.

The Fed had been holding rates steady this year because of the threat that US President Donald Trump's tariffs will raise prices for all kinds of products. Inflation has so far refused to go back below the Fed's 2 per cent target, and Fed officials don't see that happening for a few years.

In other dealings Thursday, benchmark US crude shed 10 cents to USD 63.95 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 10 cents to USD 67.85 per barrel.

The US dollar rose to 147.07 Japanese Yen from 146.89 Yen. The Euro slipped to USD 1.1813 from USD 1.1818.