Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 rising more than 1% to a new record, as investors reacted positively to the truce between Washington and Beijing following a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders reached a trade deal in their high-stakes meeting in South Korea on Thursday, easing tensions over rare earth elements that had threatened to escalate into a full-blown trade war. "Both sides appear to be preserving leverage for future negotiations by using these measures as bargaining chips," said...
The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8% to around 38,750, while the broader Topix index gained 0.6% to 2,706 on Thursday, recovering some losses from earlier in the week and tracking a strong performance on Wall Street. U.S. stocks surged overnight, boosted by a surprise drop in core inflation and solid bank earnings. However, investors remained cautious about Japanese equities after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated on Wednesday that the central bank would discuss the possibility of raising interest rates at its next policy meeting next week. Meanwhile, data showed that Japanese producer...
Producer prices in Japan increased by 3.8% yoy in December 2024, keeping the same pace as in the previous month and aligning with market consensus. It was the 46th straight month of producer inflation, remaining at its highest level since June 2023, as cost continued to grow for transport equipment (1.7% vs 1.6% in November), beverages & foods (1.9% vs 2.1%), iron & steel (-0.1% vs -0.1%), electrical machinery (4.7% vs 4.1%), production machinery (1.8% vs 1.4%), general-purpose machinery (4.3% vs 4.3%), metal products (3.8% vs 4.0%), other manufacturing (3.6% vs 3.8%), plastics (3.6%...
U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday, with all three major indexes registering their biggest daily percentage gains in more than two months, as lower-than-expected December core inflation data and solid earnings from major U.S. banks fueled a rally. The Labor Department said the consumer price index (CPI) increased the most in nine months as energy costs rose, although a measure of underlying inflation pressures subsided. Data on Tuesday showed the producer price index (PPI) rose less than expected. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 106.45 points, or 1.82%, to end at...
European markets closed higher on Wednesday as investors assessed cooler-than-expected inflation prints from the U.S. and U.K. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 1.3% higher, snapping a three-day losing streak and clocking its best performance since August 2024. All sectors were in the green, led by retail stocks, which rose 2.7%. London's FTSE 100 gained 1.2% and U.K. government bond yields dropped sharply after official data showed U.K. inflation fell to 2.5% in December. Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated the reading would remain unchanged from the 2.6% print of November. The...
Wall Street's main indexes opened higher on Wednesday, as data showed core inflation rose less than expected in December and investors cheered a strong batch of quarterly results from the biggest U.S. banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 409.5 points, or 0.96%, at the open to 42,927.76. The S&P 500 rose 62.3 points, or 1.07%, at the open to 5,905.21, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 305.9 points, or 1.61%, to 19,350.313 at the opening bell. Source: Reuters