Global Shares Soar on Rate Cut Hopes   04/25 05:25

   Global markets were higher Friday after Wall Street rallied for the third 
day, driven by hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut rates.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- Global markets were higher Friday after Wall Street 
rallied for the third day, driven by hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut rates.

   The future for the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% while that for the Dow Jones 
Industrial Average edged up 0.1%.

   In European trading, the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.7% to 7,554.56 and 
Germany's DAX was 0.4% higher to 22,154.72.

   British FTSE 100 increased 0.2% to 8,422.52 after the country reported 
better-than-expectation retail sales in March.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surged 1.9% to 35,705.74 and the Kospi in South Korea 
gained 0.9% to 2,546.15.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng picked up 0.3% to 21,980.74, while the Shanghai 
Composite Index inched down 0.1% to 3,295.06.

   The rally was boosted by hopes that Trump was softening his approach on 
tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, but China denied Thursday 
it's involved in active trade negotiations with the U.S.

   Tech stocks rose in China after some semiconductor import companies told 
Caijing Magazine that some chips made in the U.S. had been quietly exempted 
from the country's 125% retaliatory tariffs.

   The Lenovo Group rose 3.4% while the Chinese search engine company Baidu 
added 3.9%.

   However, the shares of China's largest semiconductor foundry, Semiconductor 
Manufacturing International Corporation, lost 2.8%.

   Taiwan's Taiex added 2%. India's Sensex sank 0.4% after tensions with 
Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack.

   The market in Australia was closed because of Anzac Day.

   Wall Street's rally kept rolling Thursday as better-than-expected profits 
for U.S. companies piled up in reports mainly from tech companies like 
ServiceNow and Texas Instruments, offsetting the uncertainties in the retail 
sector.

   Federal Reserve officials boosted expectations for interest rate cuts as 
they said that they would slash the rate as early as June if Trump's tariffs 
hurt the U.S. economy and job market.

   The S&P 500 charged 2% higher to 5,484.77 and pulled within 11% of its 
record set earlier this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 
40,093.40, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.7% to 17,166.04.

   In other moves early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 15 cents to 
$62.64 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

   Brent crude, the international standard, slid 13 cents to $66.42 per barrel.

   The U.S dollar rose to 143.42 Japanese yen from 142.69 yen. The euro edged 
lower, to $1.1344 from $1.1391.