Global Markets-Asian stocks gain on drop in US inflation rate
SPY•Asian stocks rally as US inflation cools
Asia's bumpy stock markets rallied on Wednesday after a surprise slowdown in U.S. inflation scaled back expectations for interest rate hikes, while oil took a breather as the U.S. scrapped a plan to levy shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
South Korea's volatile KOSPI .KS11 index surged 7% ahead of the next test for the AI rally with earnings due at ASML ASML.AS, Europe's most valuable company and the world's biggest supplier of equipment used to make AI chips.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 1% and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MISX00000PUS rose 2.4%.
Still, a 25% drop in IBM's IBM.N share price overnight, after the technology company's revenue forecast missed analyst expectations, showed how stretched and skittish the market's rally in AI-related stocks has become.
Stellar profit at Wall Street banks, though, helped broader gains for the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC on Tuesday which extended in Asia with U.S. futures rising ESc1, NQc1.
