Amid investor hopes that the U.S. central bank will curtail plans for additional rises, the Asian stock markets mainly increased on Monday in anticipation of the Federal Reserve's decision to boost interest rates again this week. Shanghai declined while Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul advanced. Oil costs dropped. Euro prices remained below $1. After Apple and other major corporations announced solid earnings and a carefully watched inflation gauge rose in September, Wall Street closed last week on a stronger note.
At this week's meeting, the Fed is largely likely to declare another 0.75 percentage point rate hike, three times its typical margin. Investors are searching for signals that officials are pleased that prior increases imposed to combat near-four-decade-high inflation are working and that future increases can be less. Investors are concerned that rate hikes by the Fed and other central banks to combat inflation may push the global economy into recession. The Federal Reserve of the United States lifted its benchmark lending rate from near zero in March to a range of 3% to 3.25%.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index increased 1.6% to 27,529.33 after the government announced that retail sales increased in September despite weaker industrial production. After a manufacturing survey revealed a decline in production and demand, the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.2% to 2,909.48. The Hang Seng index for Hong Kong increased 0.7% to 14,970.21. Seoul's Kospi increased by 0.9% to 2,289.00, and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 increased by 0.8% to 6,836.80. Markets in New Zealand and Southeast Asia also grew. Following U.S. government statistics showing consumer prices jumped 6.2% over a year earlier in September, the benchmark S&P 500 index on Wall Street increased 2.5% on Friday to 3,901.06. This is the same rate as the previous month.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile prices for food and energy to reveal the underlying trend, increased to 5.1% from 4.9% in August. Powell and other Fed officials have stated that they are prepared to maintain high-interest rates until they are certain that inflation has been eliminated. To 32,861.80, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 2.6%. To 11,102.45, the Nasdaq composite increased by 2.9%. After reporting higher-than-expected quarterly profit, Apple Inc. saw a 7.6% increase. After reporting higher-than-expected results, Intel Corp. gained 10.7%, although it also noted "worsening economic conditions." T-Mobile US Inc. increased 7.4%, and Gilead Sciences Inc. rose 12.9% after exceeding profit expectations.
Amazon.com Inc. fell 6.8% after the firm issued a lower-than-expected revenue projection. Earlier in the week, Meta Platforms Inc., a Facebook operator, lost over a quarter of its stock market value after reporting a second consecutive quarter of revenue decline. TikTok. Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, both acknowledged slowdowns in crucial areas. Wage gains for American workers were also in line with forecasts, according to government data released on Friday. Powell has mentioned wages as one of the factors the Fed is considering when deciding whether to raise interest rates.
In the late hours of Thursday, the yield on the two-year Treasury, which frequently tracks expectations for Fed action, increased to 4.42% from 4.28%. The 10-year yield, which influences mortgage and other lending rates, increased to 4.01% from 3.93%. Benchmark U.S. stocks are traded on the automated trading platform of the New York Mercantile Exchange. crude shed 33 cents to trade at $87.57 per barrel in the oil sector. The contract dropped $1.18 on Friday, reaching $87.90. Brent crude, which is used to determine the price of foreign oils, dropped 52 cents to $93.25 a barrel in London. From Friday's $1.19 to today's $95.77, it decreased. The dollar increased from 147.53 yen on Friday to 148.06 yen today. The euro dropped from 99.55 cents to 99.53 cents.
