Stock market today: Asian stocks rise ahead of a US inflation update on hopes of an easing of rate hikes | Associated Press

BEIJING (`) – Asian stock markets followed Wall Street’s surge on Tuesday ahead of an update on U.S. consumer prices that traders hope will show inflation is easing, lessening the need for more rate hikes.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney made progress. Oil prices rose.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.2% on Monday after falling for the second week in two months.

Traders are awaiting Wednesday’s US consumer price index update for signs of whether the Federal Reserve may conclude inflation has cooled sufficiently after a year of interest rate hikes. They hope the Federal Reserve decides no further hikes are needed, although Fed officials believe up to two more hikes are possible this year.

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

“They will have a hard time justifying further rate hikes when headline inflation – which is their mandate – is moving convincingly towards the target,” said Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 3,208.38 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 32,279.8. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1% to 18,655.50.

Seoul’s Kospi rose 1.4% to 2,555.09 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 jumped 1.1% to 7,078.50.

New Zealand fell while Southeast Asian markets rose.

Investors want to see if the US economy can avoid a long-predicted recession after the Fed hiked interest rates on loans to cool inflation. They expected at least a brief recession from this quarter but are more optimistic as the US workforce remains strong.

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

FMC, which sells herbicides, insecticides and other products to the agricultural industry, plunged 11.1%, posting the biggest loss in the S&P 500, after the company warned of a sudden drop in business across much of the world towards the end of May since the stocks of the partners were depleted levels. It said the “unanticipated and unprecedented” declines would hurt spring and full-year results.

Investors are also awaiting US corporate earnings reports for an update on how inflation and weaker consumer spending are affecting companies.

Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo report Thursday. JPMorgan Chase will lead a spate of bank reports on Friday.

Companies across the S&P 500 are widely expected to report a 7.2% year-over-year decline in earnings per share for the second quarter. That would be the sharpest drop in the index since spring 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic slammed the global economy.

In energy markets, the reference price for US crude rose 45 cents to $73.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 87 cents to $72.99 on Monday. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, rose 40 cents to $78.05 a barrel in London. The price lost 78 cents to $77.69 in the previous session.

The dollar fell to 140.73 yen from 141.32 yen on Monday. The euro advanced from $1.0999 to $1.1018.

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