Japanese financial markets

Asian stock markets are mixed after Wall Street rose on strong corporate earnings reports. Tokyo rose while Shanghai and Hong Kong declined. The yen remained near a two-decade low against the dollar. oil prices have risen. Wall Street rose after investment bank Goldman Sachs, military contractor Lockheed Martin and others reported strong results. This helped, at least temporarily, to offset investor fears that interest rate hikes by US, European and Asian central banks to stem inflation, which is at multi-decade highs, could plunge the global economy into recession. That concern has helped drag US stocks into a bear market, or a more than 20% drop in the S&P 500 from its January high.