Key Asian stock gauges fluctuated Wednesday after the S&P 500 hit a record on hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to curb a jobs downturn.<\/p>\n
Shares in South Korea rose in early trading, while those in Japan and Australia were mixed. US equity futures contracts edged higher after Big Tech lifted the index on Tuesday, even as most shares fell and Apple Inc. sank following its iPhone 17 launch. Treasuries edged higher early Wednesday. Oil extended gains after an Israeli attack in Qatar revived fears of an escalation of the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n
After fresh signs of a cooling labor market, investors are bracing for inflation reports in the coming days that will help shape next week\u2019s Fed meeting and the path of rate cuts into 2025 \u2014 a key test for whether Wall Street can sustain this month\u2019s rally. Money markets are almost fully projecting three Fed cuts this year, with US producer and consumer price index data due this week.
\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe markets appear to believe will be enough to protect the US economy from a recession, judging by current risk appetite,\u201d said Kyle Rodda, a market analyst at Capital.com in Melbourne. \u201cA spicy inflation print would complicate this situation and force the Fed into potential nasty trade offs between the labor market and price stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Asia, traders will monitor the potential for joint action by the US and the European Union to pressure Russia into Ukraine talks. President Donald Trump said he\u2019s prepared to join the bloc to impose sweeping new tariffs on China and India \u2014 key buyers of Russian oil \u2014 and also said he plans to discuss trade with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investors are also awaiting China\u2019s August print for factory-gate prices and consumer prices to gauge the economic impact of the government\u2019s anti-involution campaign and the ongoing deflationary pressure.<\/p>\n
The yen was little changed early Wednesday after gaining Tuesday, following a report that Bank of Japan officials may raise interest rates again this year, regardless of domestic political instability.<\/p>\n
Back in the US, the most relevant question now becomes the extent to which the August inflation data will reshape the market\u2019s expectations for the Fed\u2019s decision next week, according to Ian Lyngen and Vail Hartman at BMO Capital Markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fed is cutting 25 basis points \u2014 barring a far more dramatic downshift in the trajectory of realized inflation, in which case a half-point cut could be on the table,\u201d they said. \u201cWe\u2019re solidly in the quarter-point camp and view the August inflation update as more meaningful for the conversations about where the Fed cutting cycle ends, not how it begins.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the inflation reports, government data showed US job growth was far less robust in the year through March than previously reported. The number of workers on payrolls will likely be revised down by a record 911,000, or 0.6%, according to the preliminary benchmark revision out Tuesday. The final figures are due early next year.<\/p>\n
Jamie Dimon said the record revision to US payrolls data is further proof that the US economy is battling a slowdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy is weakening,\u201d the JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday. \u201cWhether that is on the way to recession or just weakening, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Asian stock gauges fluctuated Wednesday after the S&P 500 hit a record on hopes the Federal Reserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11366,138,15280,15277,15281,220,111,139,3745,69,15278,15279],"class_list":["post-12948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-asian-markets","tag-business","tag-csi-300","tag-kospi","tag-kospi-record-high","tag-markets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nikkei-225","tag-nz","tag-shanghai-composite","tag-us-labor-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}