A man walks past a brokerage house, as an electronic board displays stock index information graph, in the Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing, China, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) -Asian shares rallied on Friday as Wall Street earnings and signs of a thaw in U.S.-China relations boosted investor sentiment, while oil prices eased following fresh U.S. sanctions on Russian suppliers.

Intel results after the close in New York beat expectations, adding to a batch of positive U.S. earnings reports. The yen weakened and Japan's Nikkei share gauge jumped as the nation's new prime minister pledged new economic stimulus. Crude futures trimmed a weekly advance and gold was poised to halt a nine-week winning streak.

As the U.S. government shutdown blots out most economic data, the spotlight is on Friday's consumer price figures for signals about next week's policy meeting at the Federal Reserve.

Sentiment was buoyed after the White House confirmed U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week during a tour through Asia as a tariff deadline looms.

"The announcement signals confidence that trade talks to be held in Malaysia between high-level delegates in the coming days are likely to yield positive results," Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda wrote about the White House statement.

"It's unlikely either side would set their leader up for an awkward failure."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei stock index was up 1.4%.

In early European trades, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.21% at 5,692, German DAX futures rose 0.21% to 24,362 and FTSE futures edged up 0.05% to 9,624.

U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, rose 0.22% to 6,790.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%, having hit the highest since August 2015. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.7%, on track for its best week in two months. Indonesia's benchmark stock index rose 0.5% and touched a record high.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.1% to 99.06. The euro slid 0.1% to $1.1603, and the yen declined 0.2% to 152.91 per dollar after touching a two-week low of 153.05.

US SET TO PUBLISH CPI DATA AMID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Trump departs for Malaysia late on Friday night and will also visit Japan and South Korea, where he will meet Xi next Thursday.

Trade tension between Washington and Beijing has been escalating, and a meeting between the two leaders would come just before a November 1 deadline for an additional 100% U.S. tariff to be imposed on Chinese imports.

Trump took to social media to say all trade talks with Canada were terminated following what he called a fraudulent advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan. The Canadian dollar weakened 0.12% versus the greenback to C$1.4 per dollar.

On the U.S. calendar, Friday's core consumer price index print, a key input for Fed policy, is widely expected to hold steady at 3.1%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said last week it would publish the report despite the government shutdown - now in its 23rd day - to assist the Social Security Administration with its annual cost-of-living adjustment.

A higher-than-expected core reading could cause investors to unwind bets on future cuts by the Fed, according to Skye Masters, the head of markets research at National Australia Bank.

"There is that real expectation that the Fed will cut next week given their uncertainty around what's going on in the labour market," Masters said on a NAB podcast. "The bigger question really is around what they do in December."

In Japan, core consumer prices rose 2.9% year-on-year in September, data showed on Friday, staying above the central bank's 2% target and keeping alive market expectations of a near-term interest rate hike.

Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged on Friday to accelerate a defence spending target by two years, as her government pursues proactive fiscal expansion on strategic priorities.

INTEL SHARES SURGE IN AFTER-HOURS TRADING

Intel's shares surged in after-hours trading after the company beat expectations for September-quarter profit.

Next week brings results from five of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" U.S. companies at the centre of the artificial intelligence boom, including Apple and Microsoft.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gained 1.6% to $111,294.69, and ether rose 3.6% to $3,970.64.

Spot gold fell 0.3% to $4,112.79 an ounce, on track for its worst week since May.

Oil prices had surged after Washington announced late on Wednesday new sanctions on major Russian suppliers Rosneft and Lukoil, adding pressure on the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.

But on Friday, U.S. crude fell 0.4% to $61.55 a barrel, and Brent fell to $65.76 per barrel, down 0.4% on the day.

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jamie Freed)