AFP, Hong Kong :
The dollar pushed higher Thursday after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the US economy, fuelling talk of a September interest rate hike, while Asian shares were mostly up after a Wall Street rally.
Despite the mood in global markets being a little more upbeat than at the start of the week, oil prices struggled to recover from its latest sell-off.
Tokyo jumped 1.08 percent, or 219.92 points, to 20,522.83 as the yen weakened against the greenback and top firms including Nintendo reported strong earnings. Sydney rose 0.81 percent, or 45.3 points, to close at 5,669.5 thanks to a pick-up in iron ore prices.
Hong Kong was flat in late trade and Shanghai gave back early gains to sit 0.70 percent lower after running up more than three percent on Wednesday.
Seoul dropped 0.91 percent, or 18.59 points, to 2,019.03, hurt by selling in heavyweight Samsung Electronics after it reported disappointing earnings.
After a two-day policy meeting, the Fed said in a statement that the world’s top economy had expanded “moderately” in recent months and the jobs market had strengthened, but it noted continued “soft” business investment and exports.
It also said inflation was below target, though it put much of that down to falling energy prices and to cheaper imports caused by the strong dollar.
While it gave no more clues about its plans for raising interest rates, analysts said the wording suggested September was now a strong possibility for a rate rise.
The dollar pushed higher Thursday after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the US economy, fuelling talk of a September interest rate hike, while Asian shares were mostly up after a Wall Street rally.
Despite the mood in global markets being a little more upbeat than at the start of the week, oil prices struggled to recover from its latest sell-off.
Tokyo jumped 1.08 percent, or 219.92 points, to 20,522.83 as the yen weakened against the greenback and top firms including Nintendo reported strong earnings. Sydney rose 0.81 percent, or 45.3 points, to close at 5,669.5 thanks to a pick-up in iron ore prices.
Hong Kong was flat in late trade and Shanghai gave back early gains to sit 0.70 percent lower after running up more than three percent on Wednesday.
Seoul dropped 0.91 percent, or 18.59 points, to 2,019.03, hurt by selling in heavyweight Samsung Electronics after it reported disappointing earnings.
After a two-day policy meeting, the Fed said in a statement that the world’s top economy had expanded “moderately” in recent months and the jobs market had strengthened, but it noted continued “soft” business investment and exports.
It also said inflation was below target, though it put much of that down to falling energy prices and to cheaper imports caused by the strong dollar.
While it gave no more clues about its plans for raising interest rates, analysts said the wording suggested September was now a strong possibility for a rate rise.
