Stock market today: Asian markets follow Wall Street swings after Fed keeps interest rates high [Video]

HONG KONG – Asian markets wobbled in early Thursday trading after U.S. stocks swung to a mixed finish with the Federal Reserve delaying cuts to interest rates.

U.S. futures surged and oil prices were higher.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index opened with a decline, then climbed 0.1% to 38,299.71.

The Japanese yen surged as much as 2% in early Asia hours Thursday, driven by speculations of another round of yen-buying intervention by Japanese authorities and a weaker U.S. dollar following the Fed meeting. Later, the yen reversed its course and erased the previous gains. By midday, the dollar was trading at 156.04 yen, up from 154.91 yen.

“As expected, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, via the Bank of Japan, was back selling U.S. dollars to stabilize the yen. Indeed, the Japanese government is digging into their sizable 1.2-trillion-USD war chest, looking to take profit on the dollar they bought back in 2000,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said …