The full moon, otherwise known as a strawberry supermoon, is seen over the Skyline of the CBD in Sydney, Australia June 15, 2022.
Steven Saphore | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed on Wednesday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reach new intraday and closing records.
Traders in Asia assessed inflation data out of Australia. Monthly consumer price index figures rose 2.1% in October year on year, missing the 2.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.
The figure was inline with the rise in the month of September, and down significantly from the 5.6% registered in September 2023.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was trading up 0.1%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened to trade down 0.35%, while the broad-based Topix dropped 0.5%.
The South Korean blue-chip Kospi index was down 0.4% at open, while small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.65%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 19,172 slightly higher than the HSI’s last close of 19,159.2.
In the U.S. on Tuesday, the blue-chip Dow advanced 123.74 points, or 0.28%, to a record close of 44,860.31, while the S&P 500 added 0.57% to a record 6,021.63. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.63% to 19,174.30.
The strong performance came after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called for a 25% tariff on products from Mexico and Canada, as well as an additional 10% levy on Chinese goods.
He has already said he would impose a tariff of up to 20% on all imports, and an additional duty of at least 60% on products from China.
According to one market analyst that spoke to CNBC, market participants appeared to look past Trump’s announcement as they either expect the taxes to not actually come to fruition, or they have already been priced in by traders.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Alex Harring contributed to this report.
