Asian markets rose Friday (Jan 24) after a record day on Wall Street in response to Donald Trump's tax-cut pledge, while the yen weakened slightly ahead of an expected interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan later in the day.

Japan’s core inflation rate rose to a 16-month high at 3% in December, year on year, boosting the case for a rate hike from the Bank of Japan.

LIVE: Markets in India are likely to continue on a cautious note, while engaging in stock and sector specific activity in the face of multiple headwinds and continued FII selling

US stock futures and Asian shares outside China slumped on Monday as investors weighed the implications of Chinese startup DeepSeek's launch of a free, open-source artificial intelligence model to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT.

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The yen was the only Group-of-10 currency rising against the dollar on Monday as investors sought it as a haven on concern President Donald Trump’s orders to impose tariffs and sanctions on Colombia could spark wider trade tensions and economic risks.

Chinese risk-free rates are at 20 year lows. This coupled with new policy moves may buoy the Hong Kong and Chinese markets.

The US dollar dropped as much as 0.8 percent against a basket of currencies on Friday, before narrowing losses at the end of the day to be down 0.65 percent, but it still had its biggest weekly loss since November 2023, having lost 1.8 percent since Monday.

The Bank of Japan delivered a widely expected 25 basis point hike to its key lending rate on Friday, bringing the overnight call rate to the highest since 2008 and putting pressure on the dollar. The ICE Dollar Index slipped 0.

Bank of Japan goes through with planned rate increase, saying president is acting within expectations.

Japan's central bank raised interest rates to their highest since the 2008 global financial crisis and revised up its inflation forecasts.