Asian shares mostly higher, tracking Wall St rally

TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday after the Nasdaq composite touched a fresh record as enthusiasm about reopening the economy pushed Wall Street still higher.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% to finish at 23,091.03 and South Korea's Kospi was flat at 2,184.57. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.7% to 25,189.65, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 2,949.87.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.4% to 6,144.90, tracking Wall Street's recent gains. The market was closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Shares rose in Taiwan and Singapore.

In Japan, the government reported that wages fell in April as the country widened precautions to fight the coronavirus pandemic, causing some businesses to close or limit their operations.

Lower incomes make consumers even less likely to spend, compounding difficulties in boosting demand at a time when the economy is in recession. A failure to get companies to raise real wages has hindered efforts to return the economy to solid, sustainable growth.

Btu most markets are powering ahead, helped by massive injections of stimulus by world central banks, hefty government spending, and hopes that “Peak COVID" has come and gone, despite a continued global rise in infections, Hayaki Narita of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

“The durability of such a rally requires one of two things. For the music not to stop or for the real economy to catch up. The latter needs time, so the burden is now on the former," Narita said.

On Wall Street, the broader S&P 500 was up slightly for the year and back within 4.5% of its own record as optimism grows that the worst of the recession may have already passed.

Stocks that would benefit most from an economy that’s growing again rose the most, including smaller...