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Kanchisa Thitisukthanapong | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks tracked Wall Street gains on Friday as renewed rate cut hopes by the U.S. Federal Reserve bolstered market sentiment.
Japan’s overall household spending in March fell 1.2% year on year, less than the 2.4% expected by a Reuters poll of economists. However, on a month-on-month basis, household spending rose 1.2%, compared with estimates of a 0.3% drop.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.66%, while the broad-based Topix was 0.74% higher.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index hit its highest level in nine months, up 1.4%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was trading near the flatline.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.73%, but the small cap Kosdaq slipped 0.58%.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 also inched up 0.33%.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes climbed as fresh weekly jobless claims data came in at the highest level since August, raising expectations that central bankers might cut interest rates at some point this year.
The 30-stock Dow jumped 0.85% to notch its longest win streak since a nine-day run in December. The S&P 500 added 0.51%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.27%.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
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