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The Tokyo Tower, left, and commercial and residential buildings in Minato district of Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Friday, tracking a rally on Wall Street, with the S&P logging gains for a fourth straight day.
Investors in Asia will assess Japan's October consumer price index data. The core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, rose 2.3% from a year ago, slightly above the estimated 2.2%, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That's cooler than 2.4% in the previous month.
The overall CPI came in at 2.3%, versus 2.5% in September.
Singapore is also set to release its third-quarter GDP data, with growth anticipated to accelerate to 4.6% year on year from 4.1% in the prior quarter, according to LSEG data.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 started the day marginally higher by 0.02%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a stronger open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,190 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,160 compared to the index's previous close of 38,026.17.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures were flat from its last close at 19601.11.
Overnight stateside, the three major indexes rose, on track to close the week higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 462 points, or 1.06%, to finish at 43,270.35, while the S&P 500 gained 0.53% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.03% to end at 18,972.42.
Crude oil prices rose more than 2% after Putin confirmed that Russia had fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine and warned that more could follow, the latest in a series of escalations.
Chicago Fed President Goolsbee sees rates 'a fair bit lower' ahead
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday he is looking through recent fluctuations in employment and inflation data and still sees the need for interest rate cuts ahead.
"My view is that the long arc over the last year and a half shows inflation is way down and on its way to 2 percent. Labor markets have cooled to something close to stable full employment," he said in remarks before the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. "Things are getting close to where we want to settle on both counts."
As a result, he added, "It follows that we will probably need to move rates to where we think they should settle, too. We don't need to get to that place immediately, but if we look out over the next year or so, it feels to me like rates will end up a fair bit lower than where they are today."
However, Goolsbee added a note of caution, saying that in the face of potential uncertainty, "it may make sense to slow the pace of rate cuts as we get close."
Goolsbee will have a vote in 2025 on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
— Jeff Cox
Salesforce leads Dow's gains
Communications services is the worst-performing S&P 500 sector
The S&P 500's communication services sector slumped 2.3% during afternoon trading, led to the downside by a 6% slump in shares of Alphabet amid mounting antitrust concerns.
Meta Platforms and Charter Communications were the only other negative stocks in the sector.
— Samantha Subin
Stocks finish higher
Stocks finished higher Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 461.88 points, or about 1.1%, to finish at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 added 0.5% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.03% gain to end at 18,972.42.
— Samantha Subin
English (US)