Asian shares climb after another Wall Street record and hopes for cuts to U.S. interest rates

President Donald Trump also signed an executive order Thursday implementing the U.S. trade deal with Japan negotiated in July, with lower tariffs on Japanese car imports.

“Solid wage growth is likely to support recovery in spending and sustainable inflation,” ING Economics said in a commentary, adding Friday’s data reinforces its expectation that the Bank of Japan will hike rates in October.

Chinese markets rebounded after three days of decline. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 1.3% to 25,382.59, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.3% to 3,813.35.

South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.1% to 3,205.12, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 8,871.20.

Taiwan's Taiex jumped 1.3%, while India’s BSE Sensex bucked the trend, falling 0.3%.

U.S. futures were higher while oil prices edged down.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.8% to top the all-time high it set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 350 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1%.

Stocks got some lift from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields fell following the latest reports on the U.S. job market to come in worse than economists expected. One report suggested employers, not including the government, nearly halved their hiring in August from the prior month. Another said that more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication of rising layoffs.

Neither number is flashing a recession, and a third report on activity for businesses in the information and other services industries showed stronger-than-expected growth.

The upside for investors of a slowdown in the job market is that it could push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a couple weeks. Such cuts can kickstart the economy and job market, though they can also accelerate inflation.

So far this year, the Fed has kept its main interest rate on hold because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.

A more comprehensive report on the job market’s health during August will arrive Friday from the U.S. Labor Department and it will likely carry much weight with the Fed. Ahead of it, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.22% late Wednesday.

In other dealings Friday, benchmark U.S. crude lost 16 cents to $63.32 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, slid 13 cents to $66.86 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 148.23 Japanese yen from 148.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1668 from $1.1654.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.