Global shares mostly higher ahead of US inflation data and US-China summit

The hope is that inflation will continue their decline from a peak of over 9% in the summer of 2022.

Global shares were mostly higher Tuesday ahead of potentially market-moving developments, including a US-China summit and data releases in the US, Japan and China. US futures edged higher and oil prices also logged modest gains.

President Joe Biden is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit in California. It will be the first face-to-face encounter in a year between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies. Investors also are awaiting an update on consumer inflation in the US Economists expect it to show consumers paid prices that were 3.3% higher in October than a year earlier, down from September’s inflation rate of 3.7%. Early Tuesday, France’s CAC 40 was up 0.3% at 7,105.69. Germany’s DAX picked up 0.5% to 15,422.24. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 2 points higher, to 7,427.77. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% while that for the S&P 500 edged 0.2% higher. In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to finish at 32,695.93. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.8% to 7,006.70. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.2% to 2,433.25. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost nearly 0.2% to 17,396.86, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.3% to 3,056.07.

Asian stocks gained ground as investors awaited US inflation figures, hoping to confirm that interest rates have peaked. Meanwhile, positive geopolitical sentiments filled the backdrop as investors looked forward to anticipated talks between the US and China, Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a written commentary. China is due to release monthly economic indicators on Wednesday, and Japan will announce its latest growth numbers. On Monday, Wall Street drifted to a mixed finish, as the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The Dow industrials gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%. US budget politics also are on the agenda. The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a stopgap package to keep the US government running into the new year and avert a federal shutdown. If approved, the Senate would act next, ahead of Friday’s deadline.

The US economy has remained strong, even though the Federal Reserve has hiked its main interest rate to its highest level since 2001 in hopes of stamping out high inflation. With worries simmering over whether growth will stay resilient as the full effects of those rate hikes make their way through the system, investors are watching to see if prices are still cooling. The hope is that inflation will continue their decline from a peak of over 9% in the summer of 2022. That might convince the Federal Reserve no more hikes to rates are necessary and even speed up the timeline for potential cuts to interest rates. With inflation generally cooling, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently suggested a recent rise in longer-term Treasury yields might act as a substitute for further rate hikes. But Powell said last week the Fed would not hesitate to hike rates again if needed.

In other trading, benchmark US crude oil added 14 cents to $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained $1.09 on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 14 cents to $82.66 a barrel. In currency trading, the US dollar slipped to 151.63 Japanese yen from 151.72 yen. The euro rose to $1.0714 from $1.0701.