In Asia, the stock markets were mixed on Wednesday after the US central bank Fedin director general Jerome Powell spoke yesterday Tuesday to the Senate Banking Committee on the state of the economy. On Wednesday, Powell will address the House Financial Services Committee.
In his speech, Powell praised the slowdown in inflation, but said the central bank was waiting for more evidence that inflation would move close to the two percent targets in order to lower key interest rates.
“In the beginning of the year, the development towards the two percent level stopped. The readings of the last few months have again shown gradual progress,” Powell said.
In the United States, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended up around 0.1 percent on Tuesday after Powell’s speech, the Dow Jones remained in the red.
Chinese inflation more moderate than expected
In China, inflation was 0.2 percent on an annual basis in June, while Bloomberg’s the consensus forecast compiled by economists expected 0.4 percent. In May, the corresponding figure was 0.3 percent.
Producer prices fell by 0.8 percent in June, which was in line with economists’ forecast. In May, there was a decrease of 1.4 percent.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was just fine, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose by 0.3 percent.
The Topix index, which broadly describes the Japanese market, was down 0.2 percent and the NIKKEI index was close to Tuesday’s closing level.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.4 percent. A technology giant Samsung’s the workers’ union said CNBC, that they are ready to continue the strikes even after Wednesday. Originally, the strikes were supposed to last from Monday to Wednesday. The union has demanded, for example, a 3.5 percent increase in the base salary of union members. Samsung’s share was down 0.3 percent on Wednesday.
The Shanghai stock exchange was down 0.3 percent.
On Thursday, inflation data from the United States
Regarding economic figures, the final data on the development of US wholesale inventories for May will be received from the United States today, Wednesday. However, investors’ eyes are especially on the US inflation figures for June to be published on Thursday.
Futures predict a cautious upward opening for the United States, a decline is expected for Europe.
In the foreign exchange market, the Japanese yen weakened relative to other major currencies.
At 7:58 a.m., the euro fetched 1.0834 dollars, 174.08 yen, 0.84668 pounds or 11.414 Swedish kronor. The dollar was 160.68 yen and the pound was 1.2797 dollars.