Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher after another set of Wall St records

Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places.

Many world financial markets were closed on Friday for Good Friday. In India, markets were closed for the Holi holiday.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.5% to 40,369.44 and the Kospi in Seoul was little changed, at 2,748.55. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1% to 3,041.17.

Taiwan's Taiex advanced 0.7%. In Bangkok, the SET added 0.5%.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.1%, to its all-time high set a day before and closed at 5,254.35. It gained 10.2% in the first quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1% to 39,807.37 and likewise set a record. The Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1% to 16,379.46.

Oil prices jumped. U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.82 to $83.17 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $1.59 to $87.00 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 151.35 Japanese yen from 151.38 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.0774 from $1.0790.

The U.S. stock market has been on a nearly unstoppable run since late October, and the S&P 500 just capped its fifth straight winning month. It has leaped as the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid despite high interest rates meant to get inflation under control.

And with inflation hopefully still cooling from its peak, the Federal Reserve has indicated it will likely cut interest rates several times later this year.

Most stocks scrambled higher during the quarter, led by a pocket of companies riding Wall Street’s continued frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the AI rush, surged 82.5%.

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