Stocks in Asia were higher overnight, with the Nikkei (^N225) marginally 0.05% higher on the day in Tokyo, as Japan’s consumer inflation saw a slight moderation but stayed well above the BoJ’s 2% target in July.
Headline CPI eased from 3.3% to 3.1% year-on-year, in line with expectations, but the core CPI was a touch above expectations of (+3.1% vs +3.0% exp).
The core-core CPI reading that excludes both fresh food and energy prices remained steady at +.4% in July, suggesting still sticky underlying inflation momentum.
Money markets are pricing a 53% chance of a rate hike from the Bank of Japan over the next two meetings, inching a little higher overnight, while 10-year JGB yields are 0.5bps higher at 1.62%, a new post-2008 high.
Meanwhile the Hang Seng (^HSI) advanced 0.9% in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 1.5% up by the end of the session.
In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 0.9% on the day, cheering a solid move and building on the previous session’s gains.
Markets benefitted slightly from a report by The Information tech news outlet that Nvidia (NVDA) has told component suppliers to stop production related to its H20 chip that’s been designed specifically for the Chinese market.
Across the pond on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.7% higher. The Dow Jones (^DJI) also gained 0.5%.
