Asia markets jump as investors assess Japan inflation data; Singapore GDP growth tops estimates
The Tokyo Tower, left, and commercial and residential buildings in Minato district of Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Friday, tracking a rally on Wall Street that saw the S&P log gains for a fourth straight day.
Investors in Asia assessed Japan’s October consumer price index data. The core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, rose 2.3% from a year ago, slightly above the estimated 2.2%, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That’s cooler than 2.4% in the previous month.
The overall CPI came in at 2.3%, versus 2.5% in September.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 0.79% while the broad-based Topix rose 0.53%.
Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 eked out gains of 0.79%.
South Korean blue-chip Kospi index rose over 1% while small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.75%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.33%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.14%.
Singapore third-quarter GDP expanded 5.4% from a year ago, notably outpacing the revised 3.0% in the prior quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 3.2%, accelerating from the 0.5% in the second quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Singapore also raised its projection of this year’s economic growth to “around 3.5%,” from “2.0 to 3.0%”
Overnight stateside, the three major indexes rose, on track to close the week higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 462 points, or 1.06%, to finish at 43,270.35, while the S&P 500 gained 0.53% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.03% to end at 18,972.42.
Crude oil prices rose more than 2% after Putin confirmed that Russia had fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine and warned that more could follow, the latest in a series of escalations.
