Asian Stocks Rise on U.S. Rally, Tariff Threats Largely Ignored

Asian markets traded mostly higher on Friday, building on a near-record rally on U.S. stocks, as investors paid little attention to U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats. The positive handover from Wall Street, weaker U.S. dollar, and lower Treasury yields boosted risk sentiment in the region.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 2.24% to 22,303.80, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.25% to 3,340.95. The Nikkei 225 slid 0.43% to 39,292.74. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.34% to 8,569.10 and South Korea's KOSPI was up 0.63% to 2,599.43.

"[There are] much tailwinds for risk sentiments in the region to tap on, with the positive handover in Wall Street, weaker US dollar and lower Treasury yields," said Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG.

Chinese technology stocks listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange all gained on Friday, with stocks from video games firm Tencent, smartphone maker Xiaomi, and online services firm Meituan rising over 4%. This comes after Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an artificial intelligence model that rivals those of OpenAI while being trained on cheaper hardware. Companies like Alibaba have also released new iterations of their own AI models, and search engine firm Baidu said Friday that it would make its Ernie Bot AI chatbot available for free to the public.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 1% to pull within 0.1% of its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 342 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.5%. U.S. stocks rose after officials in Washington said reciprocal tariffs would take time to implement.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S crude added seven cents to $71.36 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 17 cents to $75.19 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar remained largely unchanged at about 152.88 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0459, remaining largely unchanged.

In conclusion, Asian markets rose on Friday, building on a near-record rally on U.S. stocks, as investors paid little attention to U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats. The positive handover from Wall Street, weaker U.S. dollar, and lower Treasury yields boosted risk sentiment in the region. Chinese technology stocks listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange all gained on Friday, with stocks from video games firm Tencent, smartphone maker Xiaomi, and online services firm Meituan rising over 4%.