The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with projections on the opening night of Vivid Sydney 2023 in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, May 26, 2023.
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Asia-Pacific markets largely fell as investors assess comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve board members and digest Australia’s October inflation figures.
On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he was growing more confident that policy was in a place now to bring inflation back under control. However, he maintained that inflation was still too high.
Waller also said the Fed might start lowering rates if inflation continues to ease over the next three to five months.
In contrast, Governor Michelle Bowman said more rate hikes will likely be needed as evolving dynamics keep inflation elevated.
“My baseline economic outlook continues to expect that we will need to increase the federal funds rate further to keep policy sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to our 2 percent target in a timely way,” Bowman said.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 extended gains from Tuesday and climbed 0.45%, as the country’s overall inflation rate for October slowed to 4.8%, its lowest rate since January 2022.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.18%, while the Topix was down 0.28%.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.2% after hitting a two-month high on Tuesday, but the small-cap Kosdaq was just above the flatline.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.47% on its open, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 index was marginally above the flatline.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rose after Waller’s comments that the Fed could be done hiking rates, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.24%.
The broader S&P 500 index inched higher by 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.29%.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report