BANGKOK– Stocks rose in Asia on Thursday after Wall Street resumed its upward climb after an update on inflation appeared to pave the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve.
Chinese shares rose as leaders met in Beijing to set economic plans and objectives for the coming year. The government has announced plans to expand pilot pension programs across the country from December 15.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7% to 20,501.14 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.6% to 3,454.52.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.3% to 39,897.13, led by buying in technology stocks. Advantest Corp., which makes equipment for testing computer chips, gained 4.6%, while chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 0.7%.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 2,464.00 points, while the S&Australia’s P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% lower.
Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.7% and India’s Sensex was little changed. The SET in Bangkok rose 0.3%.
US stock indexes resumed their rise on Wednesday an update on inflation seemed to pave the way for more help the economy by the Federal Reserve.
The S&The P500 rose 0.8% to break the index first two-day losing streak in almost a month, ending at 6,084.19. Big Tech stocks helped the Nasdaq index rise 1.8% to 20,034.89. It was the first close above 20,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, fell 0.2% to 44,148.56.
U.S. inflation rose to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October compared to a year earlier, fueled by more expensive used cars, hotel rooms and groceries. That shows that price pressures are still high, but not enough to prevent the Fed from cutting rates at its meeting next week.
The Fed started trimming rates in September from a two-decade high to support of a slowing labor market after inflation was almost completely reduced to the 2% target. Lower rates would boost the economy and investment prices, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation.
Expectations for a series of Fed rate cuts have been one of the main reasons why the S&P 500 has set one all-time high 57 times this yearthe latest of which was published last week.
Tesla rose 5.9% to end above $420 at $424.77. It’s a level that Elon Musk made famous in a 2018 tweet when he said he had secured financing to take Tesla private. $420 per share.
Stitch Fix rose 44.3% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss than analysts expected in the latest quarter. It also gave better-than-expected financial forecasts for the current quarter, including for revenue.
GE Vernova rose 5% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P500. The power company spun out of General Electric said it would pay a 25-cent dividend every three months and approved a plan to send another $6 billion to its shareholders by buying back its own shares.
Albertsons fell 1.5% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough to get their proposed $24.6 billion merger deal cleared by regulators. One day earlier, judges in individual cases in Oregon and Washington had reversed the merger of the supermarket giants. The grocers believed a combination could have helped them compete with major retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition.
Macy slipped 0.8% after lowering some of its full-year 2024 financial forecasts, including the amount of profit it expects to make on every $1 of sales.
In other trades early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude rose 5 cents to $70.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 11 cents to $73.63 a barrel.
The US dollar fell from 152.46 yen to 152.25 Japanese yen. The euro rose from $1.0496 to $1.0507.
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AP Business writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.