Asian stocks edge higher as inflation dust settles, Japan surges
Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks rose slightly on Thursday, tracking some strength in Wall Street as markets bet that a recent rise in U.S. inflation will prove insufficient in eliciting more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
Japanese stocks were the best performers for the day, with the Nikkei 225 rising more than 1%, while the TOPIX added 0.7% as a swathe of weak economic readings drove bets that the Bank of Japan will still need to maintain negative interest rates for the time being.
Data on Thursday showed that Japanese core machinery orders fell sharply in July, amid deteriorating business confidence in the country’s biggest manufacturers. The reading, coupled with lukewarm increases in producer inflation, largely offset signals from the BOJ that it was considering an eventual end to negative rates.
SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) was among the few major outliers in Japanese shares, sinking more than 1% even as its chip designing unit Arm secured a $54.5 billion valuation in its U.S. initial public offering.
But the valuation represented a haircut from the $64 billion valuation at which Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) had last month acquired a 25% stake in Arm.
Broader Asian markets crept higher, tracking some overnight strength on Wall Street even as U.S. consumer inflation grew more than expected in August. But the reading still saw traders sticking to expectations that the Fed will keep rates on hold next week.
«The Fed will still keep rates on hold in September, but it means officials will almost certainly keep one final hike in their official forecasts, even though we don’t think they will carry through with it,» analysts at ING wrote in a note.
Australia’s ASX 200 rose 0.2% after data showed that the
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