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SYDNEY -- Asian shares are set to jump on Wednesday, led by financials as an US interest-rate cut and forecast-topping earnings from two top US investment banks helped ease fears about credit markets.

The US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. Though the cut was smaller than some market participants had expected, investors focused on the likelihood of future cuts.

Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings, providing evidence that bank profits were intact despite the deepening credit crisis.

Relieved investors, which have been shaken by the recent fall of investment bank Bear Stearns, cheered the positive news, driving the broader US market to its biggest one-day rise in more than five years.

Asian stocks listed on Wall Street rose 3.85 percent, while the MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan added 1.0 percent overnight.

• Shares seen higher on Wall Street's gains, Fed rate cut
• Divided Fed slashes interest rates three-quarters of point
• Petron begins petrochem feedstock production

• China wants new global monetary system
• Solons caution gov’t on privatization