A Bank of Korea sign is displayed on top of the central bank’s headquarters building in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, August 16, 2018. South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates in its second consecutive meeting on Thursday to combat consumer inflation falling from 13%. The company further raised its forecast that prices will rise to the highest level since 2008.
Jiang Chong | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly higher on Friday, breaking ground with Wall Street, where major indexes fell as investors digested a sticky U.S. inflation report.
Asian investors will also be closely watching the Bank of Korea’s policy decision on Friday. According to a Reuters poll, the South Korean central bank is expected to cut interest rates for the first time since March 2022, lowering the base interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.25%.
China’s Ministry of Finance is scheduled to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday. The much-awaited briefing is expected to announce new fiscal stimulus measures as the Chinese government seeks to revitalize the economy.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.3%, and the comprehensive TOPIX rose 0.16%.
South Korean blue-chip stock Kospi rose 0.8%, and small-cap stock Kosdaq rose 0.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index futures were at 21,274, higher than the previous close of 21,251.98.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day 0.19% lower.
In U.S. overnight trading, the S&P 500 fell 0.21% to settle at 5,780.05, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.14% to end at 42,454.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.05% to end at 18,282.05.
The US consumer price index rose 0.2% from the previous month, bringing the annual inflation rate to 2.4% compared to the previous year. Inflation rose 0.1% from the previous month, beating expectations of 2.3% from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll.
The annual inflation rate was the lowest since February 2021, but concerns grew that the U.S. Federal Reserve would slow the pace of future interest rate cuts.
— CNBC’s Samantha Soobin and Ha-Kyung Kim contributed to this report.
