This is CNBC’s live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly set to rise after Wall Street jumped overnight, following U.S. inflation data that largely met expectations.
February U.S. consumer price index climbed 0.4% on the month and 3.2% year over year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday.
Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast a 0.4% increase month on month and 3.1% year over year.
Core inflation, which strips out food and energy from the headline reading, climbed 0.4% in February, compared to a forecast gain of 0.3%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.18%, extending gains from Tuesday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set to rebound after two straight days of losses, with the futures contract in Chicago at 39,010 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,870 against the index’s last close of 38,797.51.
In contrast, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,067, pointing to a weaker open after the HSI recorded a gain of over 3% and closed at 17,093.5.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rose after the inflation readings, with the S&P500 gaining 1.12% and hitting a new record high of 5,175.27.
The Nasdaq Composite also saw a 1.54% gain as investors plunged back into tech names, sending shares of Nvidia and Oracle up 7% and 11% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.61%.
— CNBC’s Yun Li and Brian Evans contributed to this report
Investor sentiment skews net bullish but momentum is fading, Citi says
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on February 23, 2024 in New York City.
The current bull market rally has more or less been ongoing since late October. But despite sentiment skewing net bullish, momentum seems to have faded in major markets, Citi said.
“Investor sentiment on U.S. equities appears less bullish, but there’s no turn to any bearishness. There remains only a few shorts on S&P and none at all on Nasdaq positioning, but the rate of new longs and ETF inflows have slowed since the end of last year,” wrote the bank’s Chris Montagu.
Overseas, positioning has been moderating from extended bullish levels in Europe. Momentum has also faded in the Chinese equities market, leaving sentiment less bearish but not necessarily bullish, Montagu added.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Oracle pops 10%, heads for best day since December 2021
Oracle shares surged more than 10% on Tuesday and headed for their best day since Dec. 10. 2021 after the database software company posted stronger-than-expected earnings fiscal third-quarter results after the bell Monday.
The company topped earnings expectations by 3 cents a share, while revenues came in at $13.28 billion, falling slightly short of the $13.30 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
Oracle said that its cloud services and license support segment saw a 12% rise in sales during the period, due in part to a spike in demand for artificial intelligence servers. The company also said that large new cloud infrastructure contracts signed during the period pushed up total remining performance obligations 29%.
The stock was also the best performer in the S&P 500’s information technology sector.
— Samantha Subin
February CPI rises 0.4% month over month, climbs 3.2% year over year
A view of grocery store in Washington DC, United States on February 14, 2024.
The consumer price index report for February was mixed, raising questions on when the Federal Reserve will start cutting rates.
CPI climbed 0.4% month over month and 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a month-over-month increase of 0.4%. Year over year, they had forecast a gain of 3.1%.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, was also slightly hotter than expected year over year and month over month.
— Fred Imbert