Asian markets mostly up after tech-fuelled Wall St rally

HONG KONG, China — Most markets rose in Asia on Tuesday following another rally on Wall Street sparked by tech giants as traders try to assess Donald Trump's tariff plans following a report he may take a more targeted approach.

Eyes were also on the release of closely watched US jobs data at the end of the week after the Federal Reserve scaled back its interest rate cut expectations and took a more hawkish turn.

After a tepid start to the week, Asian investors fought to recover on Tuesday after a tech-fuelled rally in the S&P and Nasdaq -- with Nvidia hitting a record -- as strong results from Taiwan-based chip giant Foxconn sparked a fresh rush for semiconductors.

The US gains were also helped after The Washington Post said Trump's aides were weighing plans to apply tariffs only to goods in certain critical sectors -- a more narrow definition than the president-elect previously proposed.

The report comes after Trump warned last year that he would slam huge levies on China, Canada and Mexico amid fears of a return to his hardball trade policy.

However, he later hit back at the Post story, saying it "incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong". He added that it was "just another example of Fake News".

Most markets rose in early Asian business, with Tokyo up two percent helped by a weak yen, while Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta were also higher. Wellington and Manila fell.

Hong Kong also retreated as tech firms took a hit with Tencent diving more than seven percent after it was named by the United States in a list of "Chinese military companies". Its US-listed shares shed 7.8 percent.

A spokesperson for Tencent said the company's inclusion on the list "is clearly a mistake", and that "we are not a military company or supplier".

Still, Morningstar senior equity analyst Ivan Su said: "Given Tencent's business model -—which primarily revolves around social networking and online gaming -- we believe the company has a good chance to secure exclusion through US courts."

Major battery manufacturer CATL, which was also named on the list, briefly sank more than five percent in Shenzhen before paring