In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average 225 fell 0.10%, South Korea’s Kospi Index added 0.15% and Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries Index gained 0.51%.
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The U.S. central bank also projected a less aggressive rise in interest rates next year and in 2018, and it cut its longer-run interest rate forecast to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent.
All 11 major S&P sectors closed in positive territory, led by a 1.9-percent gain for the real estate sector. AT&T rose 54 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $41.11.
The rallies began after the Fed on Wednesday maintained the low-interest rate environment that had helped underpin the bull market for stocks since the global financial crisis in 2008.
It hit a session high after Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said he believed US short-term interest rates should be raised now and warned a decline in the jobless rate below sustainable levels could derail economic recovery.
The split at the Federal Reserve over when to next raise interest rates appears to hinge largely on disagreements over the labor market outlook, comments from policymakers on Friday suggest.
Aside from the potential for Monday’s USA presidential debate having a big impact on the election, “there’s really nothing on the horizon until earnings season, and the Fed has kind of cleared the way for accommodative policy and low interest rate environment which bodes well for stocks”, said Alan Lancz, president of investment advisory firm Alan B. Lancz & Associates in Toledo, Ohio. Gold is highly sensitive to rising US interest rates, as these increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
In the bond market, benchmark United States yields hit near two-week lows on revived bets the Fed would raise interest rates slowly due to weak economic growth and inflation stuck below its 2% goal.
Apple jumped 0.9 per cent and Amazon 1.9 per cent, two of the big technology equities that helped lift the Nasdaq to 5,339.52, up 0.8 per cent after also hitting a new high on Wednesday. Gold climbed $13.30, or 1 percent, to $1,344.70 an ounce, silver rose 33 cents to $20.10 an ounce and copper increased 4 cents to $2.19 a pound.
Buying of Italian and Spanish debt – another indicator of markets’ appetite for risk – has driven the biggest weekly fall in yields since the start of July.
The dollar index dropped 0.5% to 95.189.
The financials group, which accounts for 35 percent of the index’s weight, slipped 0.5 percent overall. On the Nasdaq, 1,790 issues rose and 822 fell.
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CURRENCIES: The dollar climbed to 101.10 yen from 100.84 yen in late trading Thursday. “Fundamentally, it did not amount to an easing of monetary policy, but merely offers policy tweaks at the margin and a strengthening of forward guidance”, said Frederic Neumann, co-head of economic research at HSBC.”The BOJ now essentially promises to purchase JGBs for even longer, until inflation exceeds, and not merely meets, its 2 percent inflation target”.
