Regional traders tracked fresh Wall Street records on optimism about corporate earnings as a host of big names disclosed results.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all rose while Seoul was boosted by Samsung Electronics forecast-beating, record-breaking profits that were fuelled by sales of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone and memory chips.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates Wednesday and confirmed plans to begin winding in its massive bond holdings “relatively soon”, as expected.
But the central bank statement also noted that inflation continues to run below its 2% target, which traders took as a negative for the dollar and raised questions about any possible further rate hikes this year.
“Any chance of a September rate hike seems to have disappeared while the Fed’s statement balance sheet reduction will begin ‘relatively soon’ could mean that too has been pushed out,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at CFD and FX provider AxiTrader.
“The US dollar has come under intense pressure once again, rates eased a little, and stocks can focus on the continued earnings surprises.”
McKenna added there was little chance of a US dollar recovery in the near term.
The greenback fell sharply against its major peers following the Fed statement, with the euro climbing to its highest level in more than two years, although the US unit staged a modest recovery in late Asian trade.
It remained well off against higher-yielding currencies, with the Australian dollar spiking 1.4% and breaking 80 US cents for the first time since mid-2015.
The greenback fell more than 1% against the New Zealand dollar and the South African rand.
On equity markets Tokyo closed 0.2% higher at 20,079.64, Hong Kong was up 0.7% at 27,131.17, its 13th rise in 14 trading days.
Seoul ended the day 0.4% up, Shanghai added 0.1% 0.1 % at 3,249.78 and Sydney rose 0.2%.
Samsung – the world’s largest maker of mobile phones – said operating profit soared a forecast-beating 72.9% from the previous year to 14.07tn won ($12.6bn).That puts in on course to beat Apple, which consensus forecasts say will report a $10.6bn profit next week.
However, the firm finished 0.1% off in Seoul.
Oil prices reversed early losses to extend a recent rally, with Brent above $50 and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate at eight-week highs above $48.
Analysts said the bullish trend is expected to continue after the US Energy Information Administration said Wednesday commercial crude inventories fell 7.2mn barrels in the week to July 21.
