Asian shares track Wall St rally on upbeat consumer data

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street as investors welcomed a report showing U.S. consumer confidence is holding up despite the Federal Reserve’s campaign to fight inflation by raising interest rates.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped more than 2% and benchmarks also rose in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul. Shanghai and Mumbai declined. U.S. futures and oil prices were modestly higher.

Markets got a boost from a report showing U.S. consumer confidence is surprisingly strong, despite inflation squeezing wallets. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to 108.3 in December from 101.4 in November. That pushed the index to its highest level since April. Last month’s figure was the lowest since July.

Asian markets also got a lift from the overnight rally in tech shares, which spilled into trading in Hong Kong. E-commerce giant Alibaba jumped 4.8% while online services company Tencent gained 3.9%. Online shopping and food delivery platform Meituan picked up 5.7%.

By mid-afternoon, the Hang Seng was up 2.3% at 19,595.69, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3% to 3,058.71.

“Asian stocks picked up where the U.S. market left off, with technology and property companies leading the charge after a profusion of comments from regulators on supporting broader markets," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was 0.5% higher at 26,507.87 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 1.1% to 2,353.85. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5% to 7,152.50.

Bangkok's SET gained 0.2% while the Taiex in Taiwan climbed 1.5%.

Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday, bringing major indexes into the green for the week.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.5% to 3,878.44 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced...