Brendon Thorn | Getty Images Asia-Pacific shares rose on Friday as investors looked ahead to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole later in the state. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.06%, with banks and mining shares higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.65 percent while the Topix gained 0.28 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.7%, with the Hang Seng Tech index up 0.57%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.25 percent and Kosdaq fell 0.29 percent. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite rose fractionally and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.124%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.67 percent higher. “The hawkish commentary from a cast of Fed speakers overnight mattered little as markets await Powell’s keynote address in Jackson Hole tonight,” Taylor Nugent, economist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note on Friday. He noted that Fed speakers said the central bank’s job to fight inflation is not over and that interest rates must enter containment territory. Overnight in the US, the main indexes rose. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 322.55 points, or 0.98%, to 33,291.78. The S&P 500 gained 1.41% to 4,199.12 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.67% to 12,639.27. A number of Hong Kong-listed companies will report earnings, including Meituan.
