Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Track Wall St Higher as US Inflation Cools

That bolstered hopes that the Fed will not announce another rate hike when its monthly meeting ends on Wednesday. Two Fed board members previously said the U.S. central bank should delay another hike while it studies the impact of past hikes.

The Fed will see this as an opportunity to pause, ACY Securities’ Clifford Bennett said in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to 3,243.66 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 33,338.37. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.2% to 19,562.35.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 2,633.34 and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 7,158.70.

New Zealand fell back while Singapore and Bangkok advanced.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 4,369.01 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% to 34,212.12 and the Nasdaq index rose 0.8% to 13,573.32.

Traders are hoping the US economy can avoid a recession even after the Fed raised lending rates to a 16-year high to quench rising inflation by cooling business activity.

Tuesday’s inflation reading prompted traders to raise the bets the Fed could announce no change in interest rates. That would be the first monthly meeting in more than a year without a rate hike.

Previous rate hikes led to a contraction in output and three high-profile bank failures.

Nvidia was up 3.9% and was the strongest driver of the S&P 500, along with other technology stocks. Tech and other high-growth stocks are seen as some of the biggest beneficiaries if the Fed eases rate hikes.

Nvidia has received an extra boost from Wall Street’s enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, four out of five stocks in the S&P 500 rose.

Commodity producers and industrial companies made some of the biggest gains in hopes of a resilient economy. Miner Freeport-McMoRan rose 5.3%.

Many traders expect the Fed to resume rate hikes in July, even if it holds this week.

Zions Bancorp fell 1.6% after appearing to lower its forecast for upcoming net interest income during an investor presentation.

Many investors entered this year predicting that a recession would hit in the third quarter, which is two weeks away. Still, a resilient labor market has supported economic activity.

In the energy markets, benchmark US crude lost 23 cents to $69.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.30 to $69.42 on Tuesday. Brent crude, the price base for international oil trade, fell 19 cents to $74.10 a barrel in London. It gained $2.45 to $74.29 the previous session.

The dollar fell from 140.29 yen to 140.08 yen on Tuesday. The euro rose from $1.0790 to $1.0795.