At lunchtime on Friday, stock markets are mostly up. South Korea's Kospi is up 1.2 percent, and indices in China are also pointing up.
Shenzhen is up 0.6 percent and Shanghai is up 0.5 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 2.2 percent.
In Tokyo, developments are more mixed. The Nikkei 225 is up 0.9 percent and the Topix is down 0.2 percent. The Japanese yen has lost ground against the US dollar over the year, but in recent days the Japanese currency has strengthened significantly. One dollar now costs around 156 yen, according to Bloomberg.
