Tokyo, Asian shares gained Friday as investors cheered a strong set of earnings from retailers that has sent U.S. shares higher.

Benchmarks were rising in early trading across the region, including Japan, China, Australia and South Korea, reports AP.

“Improved risk sentiments in Wall Street, along with earnings outperformance from Alibaba and Baidu, may aid to fuel some upside for the Asia region into today’s session,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG in Singapore.

Shares of Alibaba and Baidu have surged after they reported better than expected results, easing some concerns about the negative impact from restrictions to curb COVID-19 infections. Both shares continued to rise in early trading.

Gauging Japan’s economic path will be on investors’ minds as data on manufacturing, housing and employment for April are set to be released next week.

Some analysts expect the numbers to be dim because of a slowdown in exports to China during that period.

But some optimism is also in the air, with Tokyo’s restrictions on tourists easing and the daily cap raising from 10,000 incoming people to 20,000 starting June 1.

The Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is also set to push ahead in parliamentary discussions with a supplementary budget, another possible plus for investors.

Source: Bahrain News Agency