Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Rise Ahead of Latest U.S. Inflation on Hopes of Easing Rate Hikes | Wagon Radio 720

BEIJING (AP) – Asian stock markets followed Wall Street’s gains on Tuesday ahead of an update on US consumer prices, with traders believing inflation eased and the need for further rate hikes diminished. I hope to show you.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney have expanded. Crude oil prices rose.

Wall Street’s benchmark, the S&P 500 index, fell for the first time in two months in a week before gaining 0.2% on Monday.

Traders looked to Wednesday’s U.S. consumer price update for signs of whether the Fed thinks inflation has cooled sufficiently after a year of rate hikes. They hope the central bank will decide no more rate hikes are needed, but Fed officials have suggested two more rate hikes are possible this year.

Forecasters expect inflation to ease to 3.1% in June from 4% in the previous month. That’s still higher than the Fed’s 2% target, but a significant drop from last year’s peak of over 9%.

“If headline inflation, the government’s mandate, is moving toward its target convincingly, the government will have a hard time justifying further rate hikes,” High Frequency Economics’ Lubera Faloochi said in a report. said.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6% to 3,221.37, while the Tokyo Stock Average fell less than 0.1% to 32,203.57. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.1 percent to $18,679.92.

Seoul’s KOSPI rose 1.7% to 2,562.49 and Sydney’s S&P/ASX200 index rose 1.5% to 7,108.90.

India’s Sensex opened 0.6 percent higher at 65,759.59. New Zealand markets fell while Southeast Asian markets rose.

Investors want to see if the U.S. economy can avoid the long-predicted recession after the Fed raises benchmark lending rates to keep inflation in check. They expected at least a brief recession to start this quarter, but they are more optimistic after strong U.S. employment performance.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index rose to 4,409.53. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to $33,944.40. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2% to 13,685.48.

FMC, which sells herbicides, pesticides and other products to the agriculture industry, fell 11.1% as stocks at partner companies were depleted and earnings warned of a plunge in many parts of the world towards the end of May. It was the largest loss among the S&P 500. level. It said the “unexpected and unprecedented” decline would adversely affect spring and full-year results.

Investors are also waiting for earnings reports from U.S. companies to get an update on how companies will be affected by inflation and weak consumer spending.

Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo reported Thursday. JPMorgan Chase is set to release a slew of banking reports on Friday.

Earnings per share for the S&P 500 companies are widely expected to decline 7.2% year-on-year in the second quarter. This is the biggest drop in the index since spring 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the global economy.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 33 cents to $73.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 87 cents to $72.99 on Monday. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil trading, rose 31 cents in London to $78.00 a barrel. It fell 78 cents from the previous session to $77.69.

The dollar fell to 140.56 yen from 141.32 yen on Monday. The euro rose from $1.0999 to $1.1019.