Investing.com - Shares in Asia gained on Friday led by Tokyo as sentiment on regional flows remained upbeat.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.97%. In Japan, national core CPI for September rose 0.7%, a tad weaker than the 0.8% gain seen on year and national CPIedged up 0.7% as expected.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.06%. Australian dairy processor Murray Goulburn accepted a buyout from Saputo, a Canadian milk company, valued up to AUD637.8 million ($488 million), Reuters said. Bega Cheese, an Australian company earlier reported to be an interested party, said late on Thursday it was bowing out of the race, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Macquarie Group shares outperformed Australian financials in morning trade after the bank announced a record-first half profit. Net profit for the period rose 19% to AUD1.25 billion ($96 million), topping expectations. Macquarie shares rose 2.94%.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.19% and the Hang Seng index gained 0.86%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks resumed their march toward record highs amid a surge in investor demand for riskier assets following better-than-expected earnings from Ford and Twitter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,400. The S&P 500 closed 0.13% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6556.77, down 0.11%.
U.S. stocks started the session on the front foot as both Twitter Inc (NYSE:NYSE:TWTR) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:NYSE:F) reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations on both the bottom and top line, lifting the broader indexes higher.
Shares of Twitter closed more than close 18% higher after indicating that recent measures to improve revenue are starting to take shape, edging the company closer to posting its first profitable quarter.
"This quarter we made progress in three key areas of our business: we grew our audience and engagement, made progress on a return to revenue growth, and achieved record profitability," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a statement.
The rally in Twitter comes ahead of trio of top-tier corporate earnings from Alphabet (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:MSFT) due after U.S. markets close.
A mixed batch of economic data, meanwhile, showed initial jobless claims rose less-than-expected while existing home sales growth remained tepid.
The end of the trading week culminates with the release of U.S. economic growth data due Friday, expected to confirm the economy grew at 2.5% in third quarter, cooler than the 3.1% growth achieved in the second quarter.