Asian shares rise, tracking Wall Street gains as Trump backs down on Greenland

HONG KONG — Asian shares mostly advanced on Thursday, tracking Wall Street, after U.S. President Donald Trump walked back from imposing tariffs on eight European countries over Greenland and ruled out using military force to take control of the territory.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.4% on Thursday, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.3%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.9% to 53,760.85, with technology stocks among those leading the gain. SoftBank Group jumped 11% and chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 3.7%.

South Korea's Kospi was up 2% to 5,008.08, crossing the 5,000 mark for the first time after hitting records earlier this month. Technology-related stocks drove the rally. Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 3.3%, and chipmaker SK Hynix was up 2.3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2% to 26,531.29. The Shanghai Composite index dropped nearly 0.2%, to 4,110.86.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.7% higher to 8,841.70.

Taiwan's Taiex jumped 2%, while India's Sensex rose 0.7%.

But Trump, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, backed down on Wednesday and said he would not use force to acquire Greenland. The U.S. president also said in a post on his social media site that he had agreed with the head of NATO on a ''framework of a future deal'' on Greenland and on Arctic security.

The easing tensions drove Wall Street optimism. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2% to 6,875. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.2% to 49,077.23, while the Nasdaq composite also rose 1.2%, to 23,224.82.

Halliburton, the oil field services company, jumped 4.1% following stronger-than-expected profits for the latest quarter. United Airlines rose 2.2% also after better-than-expected quarterly profits. Netflix fell 2.2% even as it reported a stronger profit than expected, as investors focused on factors including a slowing growth of subscribers.

The price of gold fell 0.9% to $4,794.70 per ounce, reflecting investors' reduced worries, after it passing the $4,800 mark on Wednesday ahead of Trump's reversal of stance on Greenland as many flocked to safe-haven assets.

In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields also eased following lessened fear among investors as well as a calming of Japan's bond market turmoil. Japan's long-term bond yields had surged earlier to records, following its prime minister Sanae Takaichi's decision to call a snap election in February, which sparked concerns over acceleration of her pledges to cut taxes and increase spending which could increase government burden.

In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 0.3% to $60.79 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.2% to $65.35 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 158.54 Japanese yen from 158.27 yen. The euro was mostly unchanged at $1.1693.

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