Asian shares advance after stimulus surge on Wall Street

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares mostly tracked Wall Street's advance on Friday in Asia in anticipation congressional approval of massive coronavirus relief for the U.S. economy.

Tokyo jumped 2.5% and Shanghai added 0.9%. Stocks sank 5.3% in Australia, ending a three day winning streak as investors reacted to news that cases of new infections in the U.S. have surpassed China's total.

India's Sensex lost 0.9% to 29,676.97 after the central bank slashed its key lending rate to a decade-low 4.4% from 5.15% to help the economy weather a lockdown aimed at beating the coronavirus outbreak in the world's second most populous country.

Overnight, Wall Street appeared to shrug off miserable news on unemployment as the S&P 500 rose 6.2%, bringing its three-day rally to 17.6%. The Dow industrials have risen an even steeper 21.3% since Monday.

Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, shattering the prior record set in 1982, as layoffs and business shutdowns sweep across the country.

Analysts said the market shot higher Thursday because the bad news on unemployment was expected. The gains earlier this week came as Capitol Hill and the Federal Reserve promised an astonishing amount of aid for the economy and markets, hoping to support them as the outbreak causes more businesses to shut down by the day.

“There is no sugar coating these numbers — they are bad,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group. “Markets have had several days to digest what everyone knew was coming; therefore, the market response to these numbers may differ than what people might expect.”

Despite the big gains, the S&P 500 remains 22% below its February high and analysts expect more dire economic headlines, and market turbulence, in the days...