Beijing, Apr 14: Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday after US Inflation eased in March and China reported unexpectedly strong exports.
Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong gained. Oil prices rose.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 1.3 per cent on Thursday after inflation at the wholesale level slowed more than expected.
Asian markets were “taking cues from a solid rally on Wall Street,” said Anderson Alves of ActivTrades in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 3,323.20 after customs data Thursday showed China’s March exports rose 14.8 per cent over a year earlier, rebounding from a decline in January and February.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 1 per cent to 28,433.11. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added less than 0.1 per cent to 20,361.16.
The Kospi in Seoul, South Korea, advanced 0.5 per cent to 2,573.78 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 was 0.3 per cent higher at 7,348.20.
New Zealand declined while Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, gained.
Traders hope signs stubbornly high inflation is weakening might prompt the Federal Reserve and other central banks to postpone or scale back plans for interest rate hikes to cool business and consumer activity.
Government data Thursday showed prices paid to U.S. Producers rose 2.7 per cent over a year earlier, the smallest gain in more than two years.
On Wednesday, separate data showed consumer inflation slowed to 5 per cent from February’s 6 per cent.
Another report Thursday said slightly more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected, though the job market has remained resilient.
The S&P 500 gained to 4,146.22. The Dow rose 1.1 per cent to 34,029.69, and the Nasdaq jumped 2 per cent to 12,166.27.
Notes from the Fed’s March 21-22 meeting showed members agreed its next rate hike would be one-quarter percentage point instead of a half-point.
Some traders are betting the Fed might keep its benchmark lending rate steady at its May meeting.
Others expect the U.S. Central bank to start cutting rates as early as mid-year to shore up the economy. Fed officials have said they expect at least one more increase this year and then for the benchmark rate to stay elevated through at least early 2024.
Big U.S. Companies are starting to tell investors how much they earned during the first three months of the year.
Expectations are low. Forecasts call for the sharpest drop in earnings since the pandemic was pummeling the economy in 2020.
The biggest banks are due to start reporting results following a flurry of anxiety about the industry after two high-profile failures in the United States and one in Switzerland.
That stirred fears banks were cracking under the strain of rate hikes. Regulators appear to have soothed that unease by promising more lending to institutions and other steps if needed.
Notes from the Fed meeting said its staff economists see such weakness potentially causing a mild recession later this year.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. Crude rose 26 cents to USD 82.42 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell USD 1.10 on Thursday to USD 82.16. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, gained 19 cents to USD 86.28 per barrel in London. It lost USD 1.24 the previous session to USD 86.09.
The dollar fell to 132.43 yen from Thursday’s 132.77 yen. The euro gained to USD 1.1070 from USD 1.1046. (AP)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
