Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
shares Asia rose on Wednesday as hopes of a US interest rate cut helped ease concerns over rising trade tensions between the two countries. Washington And Beijing,
US futures rose, while oil prices retreated.
Gold hit new highs and rose above $4,200 an ounce. The precious metal is up nearly 60% in 2025 as investors look for a hedge against a long list of uncertainties, including higher tariffs and the economy.
Federal Reserve Chairman jerome powell Signals on Tuesday that the Fed is a little more concerned about the job market increased expectations that the central bank will come up with another rate hike.
“The increasing downside risks to employment have changed our assessment of the balance of risks,” he said at a meeting of the National Association of Business Economics in Philadelphia.
Given the lack of fresh data due to the U.S. government shutdown, traders took his word for granted, “reading Powell like a haiku — every pause, every syllable weighed for hidden meaning,” SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes said in a comment.
“The message, once decoded, was quite clear: two rate cuts are not just a possibility, they are the main course,” he said.
Early Wednesday in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.3% to 47,463.31, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.2% to 25,749.13.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1% to 3,868.33.
In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 1.9% to 3,629.42 as market leader Samsung Electronics advanced 2.5%.
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.4%.
US indexes jumped on Tuesday amid gains and losses, as tensions between Washington and Beijing sparked fresh jitters.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 6,644.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 46,270.46, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8% to 22,521.70.
Markets have risen as the US and China Have exchanged harsh words and threats of new trade sanctions and tariffs.
Technology stocks are susceptible to trade issues because large chipmakers and other companies rely on China for raw materials and manufacturing. China’s large consumer base is also important for their sales growth. Chipmaker Nvidia fell 2.6% and Broadcom fell 3.5%.
While US President Donald Trump’s trade war with the second-largest economy and leading global rival is shaking up the global trading system, the US economy has so far escaped any major impact from his frequently changing US tariff policies. That could change if nations fall back into a cycle of retaliatory tariffs and companies passing on more costs to consumers.
The government shutdown has disrupted the usual economic updates on inflation, consumer spending and employment, making it more difficult for investors and economists to assess the economic impact of the tariffs.
The Fed has been deprived of much of the data it uses to make policy decisions due to a lack of updates about the US economy. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point in September amid concerns about worsening unemployment. This is the first cut of the year and Wall Street expects similar cuts at the Fed meetings in October and December.
Wall Street looks to the upcoming round of company earnings and forecasts to better understand the broader economic picture.
The latest profit report could also help traders gauge the value of the broader market amid criticism that it has become too expensive. To make stocks appear less expensive overall, either prices need to fall or companies’ profits need to increase.
The first major sector to kick off this round of earnings updates, reports from banks indicate Wall Street will have one of its most profitable quarters ever. Still, executives at major banks expressed varying degrees of caution about the markets and the economy.
In other deals early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 10 cents to $58.60 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 17 cents to $62.22 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 151.11 JPY from 151.83 yen. The euro rose to $1.1624 from $1.1608.
,
AP writers Matt Ott, Damien J. Trois and Christopher Ragaber contributed to this report.