Asian Shares Trade Mixed As Investors Gauge Inflation Data

Asian shares traded mixed on Tuesday after a rally on Wall Street that regained some of the losses from the market’s worst week in nearly a year and a half, reported Yuri Kageyama and Stan Choe for the Associated Press (AP).

Investor attention is now turning to the latest monthly updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels, set to be released later in the week.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose nearly 0.2% in afternoon trading to 36,282.25. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 8,021.10, while South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3% to 2,529.02.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4% to 17,270.12, and the Shanghai Composite declined 0.2% to 2,729.86.

On Monday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 rallied 1.2% to 5,471.05, though it didn’t recoup all of its losses from Friday, nor from the rest of the four-day losing streak that it broke. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 40,829.59, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.2% to 16,884.60.

Investor attention is now turning to the latest monthly updates on inflation at the consumer and wholesale levels, set to be released later in the week.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has been using high interest rates to cool down the economy in an effort to control inflation. It's expected to start lowering rates later in September, which would ease economic pressure as it shifts its focus toward protecting the job market and avoiding a recession.