Stock market today: Asian shares mostly rise after Wall Street’s record rally

TOKYO — Asian shares mainly rose on Wednesday, boosted by a record rally on Wall Street led by technology companies.

The Australian S&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 7,729.40. South Korea’s Kospi gained almost 0.5% to 2,694.60. But Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost its morning gains, falling 0.3% to 3,054.28 in afternoon trading.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 17,183.94, while the Shanghai Composite was virtually unchanged, down less than 0.1% to 3,054.28.

“The yen has been a notable gainer against the dollar, with attention focused on the upcoming spring wage negotiations, known as ‘shunto’, as the outcome could influence the Bank of Japan’s preference for ending its policy of negative interest rates. says Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

In currency trading, the US dollar fell from 147.63 yen to 147.54 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0931, up from $1.0930.

Speculation is rife that Japan’s central bank is about to end its ultra-easy monetary policy, which has pushed interest rates below zero, and start raising rates.

On Wall Street, the S&The P500 rose 1.1%, surpassing its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 235 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.5%.

All three indexes started the day with losses after a long-awaited report on inflation said U.S. consumers paid slightly higher prices than economists expected last month. The worse-than-expected data closed the door on long-sought interest rate cuts at next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

But inflation figures were still close to expectations, and traders remained hopeful that the longer-term downward trend means the Fed will begin cuts in June. That helped stock indices recoup their intraday losses.

Moreover, inflation may not actually be as high as the morning report suggested.

“January and February are notoriously noisy months for many economic data,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, who said attention will focus more on the longer-term trend.

The fear is that “sticky” inflation, which refuses to fall, will force the Fed to keep interest rates high, negatively impacting the economy and investment prices. The Fed’s key interest rate is already at its highest level since 2001.

“A new better-than-expected CPI reading could revive the persistent inflation story, but whether it actually slows rate cuts is another story,” said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investors, at Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade. .

For months, Wall Street traders have been trying to stay ahead of the Federal Reserve and guess when interest rate cuts will come. In anticipation of that, they have already sent stock prices higher and bond yields lower.

Through it all, the Fed has “been nothing but consistent in doing what it said it would do,” Larkin said. “Until they say otherwise, their plan is to cut rates in the second half of the year.”

Nevertheless, the immediate reaction in financial markets to the inflation data was hesitant and uncertain.

In the bond market, government bond yields initially fell, but then rose. The yield on the 10-year government bond ultimately rose from 4.10% at the end of Monday to 4.15%.

The price of gold, which has soared to records on expectations of upcoming interest rate cuts, also reversed. An ounce for April delivery eventually fell $22.50 to settle at $2,166.10.

On Wall Street, the big technology stocks performed heavily. Oracle rose 11.7% after reporting stronger quarterly profit than analysts expected. Nvidia also rose 7.2% after a rare two-day hiccup. It was the strongest force that the S&P500 up on Tuesday.

All in all, the S&P rose by 57.33 points to 5,175.27. The Dow Jones rose 235.83 to 39,005.49 and the Nasdaq gained 246.36 to 16,256.64.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude added 62 cents to $78.18 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 62 cents to $82.54 a barrel.