Asian shares were mostly higher in early Friday trading after Wall Street advanced on easing Treasury yields and gains in large technology and communication-services companies. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% to 64,622.33, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.9% to 6,635.67, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.1% to 25,751.26. U.S. stocks also climbed, with the S&P 500 up 1.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.2% higher and the Nasdaq composite gaining 1.4%. Nvidia rose 1.8% after announcing a $13 billion purchase of AI platform Hugging Face. Oil prices continued to rise amid the six-month-long U.S. war with Iran and heightened tensions affecting access to the Strait of Hormuz. Investors were also assessing Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller's comments on future rate policy and watching for a possible Bank of Japan rate increase later this month.