Australia
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Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Wednesday, following gains on Wall Street that saw the Nasdaq Composite surge to record highs after November’s inflation report met expectations.
Traders in Asia will assess November jobs data from Australia, set for release later in the day. A poll from Reuters expects the country’s unemployment rate to rise to 4.2%, up slightly from 4.1% in October.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 opened 0.38% higher.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 20,215 higher than the HSI’s last close of 20,155.05. Hong Kong will release industrial production data for the third quarter later today.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a higher open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 40,035 and its counterpart in Osaka at 40,050 compared to the previous close of 39,372.23.
In the U.S. on Wednesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.77% to end at 20,034.89 and post an all-time high and a closing record.
The broad market S&P 500 gained 0.82% to close at 6,084.19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the outlier, falling 99.27 points, or 0.22%, to 44,148.56.
Nvidia rose more than 3%, while Tesla advanced nearly 6%, alongside a broader rise in several major companies following the relatively tame inflation data.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Alex Harring contributed to this report.