The Minato district of Tokyo, Japan, in October 2022.
This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.
Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Friday, tracking a rally on Wall Street that saw the S&P log gains for a fourth straight day.
The exceptions were Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, which fell 2.2% in its last hour of trade, and mainland China's CSI 300, which widened losses to 3.1% to close at 3,865.7.
Investors might be taking a wait-and-see approach while awaiting clarity on U.S.-China tariffs, said Eugene Hsiao, head of China equity strategy at Macquarie Capital, who believed additional stimulus announcements from Beijing may not come until the next parliament meeting in March.
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Investors in Asia also assessed Japan's October consumer price index data. The core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, rose 2.3% from a year ago, slightly above the estimated 2.2%, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That's cooler than 2.4% in the previous month.
The overall CPI came in at 2.3%, versus 2.5% in September.
Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 0.68% to close at 38,283.85, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.51% to end at 2,696.53.
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South Korean blue-chip Kospi index added 0.83% to 2,501.24 while small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.54% to finish at 677.01.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 eked out gains of 0.85% to close at 8,393.8.
Singapore third-quarter gross domestic product expanded 5.4% from a year ago, notably outpacing the revised 3.0% in the prior quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 3.2%, accelerating from the 0.5% in the second quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Singapore also raised its projection of this year's economic growth to "around 3.5%," from "2.0 to 3.0%"
Overnight stateside, the three major indexes rose, on track to close the week higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 462 points, or 1.06%, to finish at 43,270.35, while the S&P 500 gained 0.53% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.03% to end at 18,972.42.
Crude oil prices rose more than 2% after Putin confirmed that Russia had fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine and warned that more could follow, the latest in a series of escalations.
Alibaba shares sink after announcing plans to consolidate all e-commerce units
Alibaba Group's Hong Kong-listed shares dropped as much as 3.8% on Friday, a day after the company announced plans to merge all of its e-commerce arms, both domestic and international, under a single business unit, overseen by one leader.
The new unit — named Alibaba E-commerce Business Group — will cover domestic brands Taobao and Tmall Group, as well as cross-border businesses such as Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, according to the company's stock exchange filing on Thursday.
Jiang Fan, who served as acting CEO of Alibaba's domestic e-commerce operations, has been tapped to lead the new unit.
This is the first time that the Chinese tech giant has put all of its e-commerce platforms under one business unit run by a single leader, Reuters reported.
A slowdown in China's consumer market has put Alibaba under pressure as it faces fierce competition from smaller rivals such as PDD Holdings and ByteDance's Douyin, which have gained market share by offering heavily discounted goods.
Alibaba's Nasdaq-listed shares fell 1.4% following the release.
— Anniek Bao
Bitcoin hits fresh record, marches toward $100,000 as rally continues
Bitcoin breached the $99,000 level for the first time Thursday as investors continued pricing in a second Donald Trump presidency.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 4% at $98,273.50, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $99,046.94.
Investors took profits in crypto stocks amid a broader rotation out of tech. Crypto exchange Coinbase was lower by 7.7% and MicroStrategy dropped 16.2%. Mining stocks were under pressure, with the exception of Mara Holdings, up about 6.9%.
Bitcoin has been regularly hitting fresh records this month on hopes that Trump will usher in a golden age of crypto, which would include more supportive regulation for the industry and a potential national strategic bitcoin reserve or stockpile.
— Tanaya Macheel
Singapore's third-quarter GDP tops estimates, grows at fastest pace in three years
Singapore's economy expanded 5.4% year on year in the third quarter, faster than the 4.1% official advance estimate released last month and a median forecast of 4.6% in a Reuters poll of economists.
That marked the city-state's highest quarterly growth since the fourth quarter in 2021, when it came in at 6.1%, according to data compiled by LSEG.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 3.2% in the third quarter, accelerating from the 0.5% in the second quarter.
Singapore also raised its projection of this year's economic growth to "around 3.5%," from "2.0 to 3.0%."
— Anniek Bao
SK Hynix shares jump as its parent outlines plans to boost shareholder value
Shares of chipmaking giant SK Hynix jumped as much as 4.7% on Friday, a day after its parent company SK Square announced a series of steps to bolster shareholder value, in a so-called "value-up" plan.
SK Square said it was considering to repurchase 100 billion won worth of shares within the next three months, and take them off circulation.
In the Thursday statement, SK Square, which owns a 20% stake in SK Hynix, also unveiled other measures to boost the value of the company, including seeking "investment opportunities in promising future growth sectors such as semiconductor and artificial intelligence."
— Anniek Bao
CNBC Pro: HSBC names 2 China stock picks for 2025 — and gives one over 70% upside
Chinese markets are "turning a corner" following a series of government stimulus measures, HSBC said, naming its top stock ideas for 2025.
"Mainland China has announced a slew of policies to help ensure that local governments can pay their bills and service debt. This should reduce the risk of an immediate slowdown in growth in mainland China and the market has so far reacted positively to these initiatives," the investment bank's analysts wrote in a Nov. 19 research note.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Amala Balakrishner
Japan’s October headline inflation rate falls, but economists still see BOJ rate hike on the table
Japan's headline inflation rate slipped to 2.3% in October, its lowest level since January and down from the 2.5% seen in September.
The core inflation rate, which excludes fresh food prices, came in at 2.3%, down from September's 2.4%. The figure however, was slightly higher than the 2.2% expected among economists polled by Reuters.
Japan's central bank has long stated that its goal is a "virtuous cycle between wages and prices." A weak inflation reading could therefore mean that the bank would still need to maintain an easy monetary policy stance.
A separate inflation reading, known as the "core-core" inflation rate — which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy — rose to 2.3%, above September's figure of 2.1%. This metric is also tracked by the Bank of Japan.
Read the full story here.
— Lim Hui Jie
Japan plans $90 billion spending in new stimulus package, Reuters reports
Japan is considering spending 13.9 trillion yen ($89.7 billion) from its general account to fund a new stimulus package aimed at mitigating the impact of rising prices on households, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters on Thursday.
The proposed spending, exceeding the 13.2 trillion yen allocated for last year's economic stimulus, is set to exacerbate Japan's already strained public finances, with debt currently twice the size of its economy.
The package also includes around 8 trillion yen for government investment and lending, as well as local government spending, putting the overall package at 39 trillion yen when private funding is included, the document showed.
The figures were also confirmed by three other government and ruling party sources, who declined to be identified as the matter has not been made public.
— Reuters
Chicago Fed President Goolsbee sees rates 'a fair bit lower' ahead
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday he is looking through recent fluctuations in employment and inflation data and still sees the need for interest rate cuts ahead.
"My view is that the long arc over the last year and a half shows inflation is way down and on its way to 2 percent. Labor markets have cooled to something close to stable full employment," he said in remarks before the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. "Things are getting close to where we want to settle on both counts."
As a result, he added, "It follows that we will probably need to move rates to where we think they should settle, too. We don't need to get to that place immediately, but if we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today."
However, Goolsbee added a note of caution, saying that in the face of potential uncertainty, "it may make sense to slow the pace of rate cuts as we get close."
Goolsbee will have a vote in 2025 on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
— Jeff Cox
Salesforce leads Dow's gains
Shares of Salesforce popped more than 5%. The software behemoth was the largest contributor to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 600-point gain.
Goldman Sachs was another big winner, adding about 3%. Sherwin-Williams and Caterpillar also added nearly 3%, while Home Depot gained 2%.
— Samantha Subin
Communications services is the worst-performing S&P 500 sector
The S&P 500's communication services sector slumped 2.3% during afternoon trading, led to the downside by a 6% slump in shares of Alphabet amid mounting antitrust concerns.
Meta Platforms and Charter Communications were the only other negative stocks in the sector.
— Samantha Subin
Stocks finish higher
Stocks finished higher Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 461.88 points, or about 1.1%, to finish at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 added 0.5% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.03% gain to end at 18,972.42.
— Samantha Subin
