The rest of the world hates us so much due to Bush? They still seem to think that we are good for business!! http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D944JEB80&show_article=1 HONG KONG (AP) - Asian stock markets rallied in early trade Thursday, led by a 12 percent jump in South Korea, after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to help revive the world's largest economy and opened new credit lines with central banks. Every major index advanced, with Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average gaining 7 percent to 8,794 as exporters like Toyota and Sony got a boost from the yen continuing to retreat from a 13-year high against the dollar last week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 9.4 percent to 13,900, while South Korea's key stock index soared 12.5 percent to 1,090. Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan and the Philippines were trading higher by about 4 percent or more. The Federal Reserve's overnight move to cut a key interest rate by half a percentage point was widely expected but still provided a reason to sustain the regional rise that began Tuesday following days of punishing declines. Taiwan's central bank followed by cutting its key lending rate by a quarter point. Before the Fed's move, China also cut its key rates by just over a quarter point. Markets also took heart from an announcement that the Fed would supply new lines of credit worth up to $30 billion to the central banks of South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and Singapore to help relieve the global credit crisis. "This does help investor confidence," said Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor's equity research in Singapore. "Globally, governments are just doing what they can to make sure the economy doesn't seem even worse. "Plus I think investors are waking up to the fact that valuations are ridiculously low," she said. The $30 billion facility is the latest in a series of "swap" arrangements where the Fed provides dollars for reserves of the other nations' currencies. The Fed said the new credit lines were designed "to help improve liquidity conditions in global financial markets" by increasing the global availability of U.S. dollars. Oil continued to strengthen. Light, sweet crude for December delivery climbed another $1.62 to $69.12 a barrel in Asian trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $67.50 overnight. In currencies, the dollar rose to 98.23 yen from 97.59 late New York Wednesday and up sharply from 91 yen last Friday. Toyota Motor Corp. was up 6.9 percent, while Sony Corp. was up 6.1 percent.