World shares mostly higher after Wall St snaps losing streak

Stocks got some help from the report showing inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.6% in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While that’s above the Fed’s 2% target, it was precisely what economists had forecast

Bangkok: Shares were mostly higher on Monday in Europe and Asia after Wall Street broke its three-day losing streak, trimming its losses for last week.

China factory data are due out on Tuesday, and a quarterly business sentiment survey by the Bank of Japan comes out on Wednesday. The next big event for Wall Street could be a looming shutdown of the US government, with a deadline set for this week. But such political impasses have had limited impact on the market before. US jobs data will also be in the spotlight.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.5 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 per cent. In Germany, the DAX edged 0.2 per cent higher to 23,795.28, while the CAC 40 in Paris also rose 0.2 per cent to 7,885.82. Britain’s FTSE picked up 0.5 per cent to 9,328.70.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was the regional outlier, giving up 0.7 per cent to 45,043.75. Chinese markets advanced, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong adding 0.9 per cent to 26,622.88, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9 per cent to 3,862.53. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9 per cent to 8,862.80, while the Kospi in South Korea surged 1.3 per cent to 3,431.21.

On Friday, US stocks trimmed their losses for the week after a report showed that inflation is behaving roughly as economists expected, even if it’s still high. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent and the Dow industrials gained 0.7 per cent. The Nasdaq composite added 0.4 per cent. All three indexes pulled closer to the all-time highs they set at the start of the week.

Stocks got some help from the report showing inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7 per cent last month from 2.6 per cent in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While that’s above the Fed’s 2 per cent target, it was precisely what economists had forecast. That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest rates to give the economy a boost.

Without such cuts, growing criticism that stock prices have become too expensive by rising too quickly would become even more powerful. The Fed just delivered its first rate cut of the year last week, but it is not promising more because it could worsen inflation.

Another report said sentiment among US consumers was weaker than economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said consumers are frustrated with high prices, but their expectations for inflation over the coming 12 months also ticked down to 4.7 per cent from 4.8 per cent.

One factor threatening to push inflation higher, adding to consumer woes, is President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and he announced more late Thursday. They include taxes on imports of some pharmaceutical drugs, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, upholstered furniture and heavy trucks starting on Oct 1.

Details were sparse about the coming tariffs, as is often the case with Trump’s pronouncements on his social media network.

That left analysts unsure of their ultimate effects, and the announcement created ripples in the US stock market instead of huge waves. Paccar, the company based in Bellevue, Washington, that’s behind the market-dominant Peterbilt and Kenworth truck brands, rose 5.2 per cent higher, for example.