Aussie and Japan stocks rise, Korean stocks open lower

Asia markets mostly rose Friday after Wall Street rose overnight as investors assessed Big Tech earnings.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.14% while the broader Topix index traded flat.

The Tokyo consumer price index, excluding fresh food, rose 2.5% year on year in January, compared with 2.4% in the previous month. The latest reading is in line with Reuters’ estimates.

Japan’s unemployment rate for December fell to 2.4% from 2.5% in the previous month, missing Reuters estimates of 2.5%.

Meanwhile, Japan’s retail sales for December climbed 3.7% from the previous year, while its industrial output figures for December grew at 0.3%, month on month, from the 2.2% drop in the month before.

South Korean markets opened lower, after a four-day break. The Kospi lost 1.04% while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.58%.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.56%.

The country’s producer price index rose 3.7% through the year to the December 2024 quarter, data released on Friday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed.

Hong Kong and Chinese markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rose.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 168.61 points, or 0.38%, closing at 44,882.13. At its session highs, it had added nearly 300 points. The S&P 500 rose 0.53% to 6,071.17, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.25% to end at 19,681.75.

Stocks cut gains late in the session after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intentions to implement 25% tariffs U.S. imports from Canada and Mexico.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.