Stock market today: Asian markets are mixed after a slow day on Wall St ahead of US inflation update
Shares are mixed in Asia after U.S. stock indexes held at a near standstill ahead of some potentially market-moving reports
BANGKOK — Shares were mixed in Asia on Wednesday after U.S. stock indexes held at a near standstill ahead of some potentially market-moving reports.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.9% to 17,144.54, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.3% to 3,088.25.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gave up 0.4% to 39,616.51 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gained 0.4%, to 7,854.30.
India's Sensex advanced 0.4% and the SET in Bangkok climbed 0.7%.
Markets in South Korea were closed for an election.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 5,209.91 after barely budging the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1%, to 38,883.67, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to 16,306.64.
Later Wednesday the U.S. will release its highly anticipated update on inflation at the consumer level. This week will also bring other reports on inflation, and big U.S. companies will begin reporting how much profit they made during the first three months of the year.
The dominant question hanging over Wall Street is whether inflation will cool enough to convince the Federal Reserve to deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders are craving and have been betting on.
“There’s a palpable sense of nervousness among investors as they exercise a modicum of restraint, concerned about the possibility of hotter-than-expected inflation figures,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Some doubts have crept in following a series of hotter -than- expectedreports on the economy, and traders now expect just two or three cuts to rates this year. Some are even talking about the possibility of zero. That’s
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