Asian stocks follow Wall Street up ahead of US jobs update

Asian stock markets are following Wall Street higher ahead of a U.S. job market update that traders hope might encourage the Federal Reserve to ease off plans for more interest rate hikes. Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul gained. Hong Kong and Australian markets were closed for a holiday. Traders who worry higher interest rates might tip the global economy into recession looked ahead to U.S. government data that are expected to show the job market is cooling. They hope that might prompt the Fed to decide aggressive rate hikes are no longer needed to extinguish inflation. The U.S. economy has been slowing but inflation still is higher than the Fed’s 2% target.