Asian equities climb after soft US inflation print

Asian equities rose Thursday after cooler-than-forecast US inflation helped Wall Street rebound from two days of heavy losses.

Australian and Japanese shares rose and equity-index futures for US stocks climbed in early Asian trading, bolstering advances in the prior session. Even after Wednesday’s gains for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, the first since Friday for the US benchmarks, they both remained over 3% lower this week. Hong Kong equity futures fell, tracking declines in an index of US-listed Chinese companies on Wednesday.

Treasuries were little changed in Thursday trading after failing to meaningfully move on the inflation print Wednesday. The US 10-year yield rose three basis points to 4.3%. The policy-sensitive two-year yield climbed four basis points. Major currencies held to tight ranges. An index of the dollar was little changed Wednesday.
The muted moves and lack of a clear response to the inflation data in Treasuries was a further sign the uncertainty triggered by President Donald Trump’s trade policies weighed on sentiment across global markets.

“For the last three weeks, traders have felt like buying this market is like trying to catch a falling knife,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide. “But extreme oversold conditions and near-universal pessimism suggest a relief rally is likely.”

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US CPI, and a separate measure that strips out food and energy prices, both rose 0.2% in February compared to the 0.3% consensus forecast. The better-than-expected result is a positive sign given the