An employee works on the assembly line of intelligent machinery at a workshop on March 31, 2024 in Qingzhou, Weifang City, Shandong Province of China.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
The Japanese yen strengthened by midday after hitting 160 against the U.S. dollar on Monday as stocks in Asia-Pacific markets largely climbed.
The yen gained about 2% to trade around 155 after weakening to 160.03 earlier in the session. On Friday, the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged. Japan’s stock markets are closed for a public holiday.
Traders look toward the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, following another hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation reading Friday.
March’s core personal consumption expenditures, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% from a year ago, and came in ahead of the 2.7% expected by Dow Jones. Personal spending rose 0.8%, ahead of a 0.7% estimate.
In Asia, China’s official purchasing managers index for April is expected Tuesday ahead of the Labor Day holiday on Wednesday, along with Japan’s industrial production and retail sales data from March.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was closes up 0.81% at 7,637.40, rebounding from Friday’s losses.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.17% to end at 2,687.44, and the small-cap Kosdaq gained 1.51% to close at 869.72.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.66%, while China’s CSI 300 added 1.11% to close at 3,623.91, hitting its highest level since Nov. 6, 2023.