A man looks at an electronic quotation board displaying stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on August 2, 2022.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks rose Thursday after Wall Street benchmarks closed at record highs on soft inflation data, while investors assessed Japan GDP data.
U.S. consumer price index rose 0.3% in April, below the 0.4% rise predicted by the Dow Jones. U.S. CPI climbed 3.4% year over year, in line with market estimates.
Japan’s first-quarter GDP contracted at an annualized rate of 2%, more than the 1.5% expected in a Reuters poll. The latest data could likely jeopardize the Bank of Japan’s plans to raise interest rates.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened 0.9% higher, while the broader Topix gained 0.54%.
South Korea’s markets reopened after a midweek holiday, with the Kospi jumping 1.49% and the smaller cap Kosdaq adding 1.3%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.59%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 19,062, pointing to a marginally lower open compared with the HSI’s close of 19,073.71. Markets in Hong Kong will also reopen after a holiday on Wednesday.
Overnight, Wall Street’s main indexes closed at record highs on Wednesday after data showed CPI rose at a slower-than-expected pace in April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 349.89 points, or 0.88%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.17%. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.40%.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.