Nikkei Surges Four Percent After Wall Street Rally

Japan's Nikkei share average surged more than four percent on Friday following a rally on Wall Street, driven by Microsoft's strong earnings report. The tech giant's forecast of quarterly sales and cloud growth above expectations eased fears about its massive AI infrastructure spending.

The Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep monetary policy steady later in the day, with no changes to the key interest rate of one percent.

The Nikkei ended the morning session up 4.4 percent at 64,572.25 after rising as much as 5.7 percent at one point. The broader Topix index rose 1.5 percent.

Chip-testing equipment manufacturer Advantest soared 17 percent and AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group jumped more than 15 percent.