Asian shares are trading higher as investor anticipation grew that the Federal Reserve will announce the first cut of the year on its main interest rate. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 momentarily reached above 45,000 points a few times during the session, the first ever for that to happen during regular trading, and traded higher than the previous close in the afternoon. Shares also rose in Australia, South Korea and China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize a deal for the ownership of popular social video platform TikTok.
