Stock market today: Asian shares advance, tracking rally on Wall Street

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced Thursday in Asia after Wall Street resumed its upward climb, as an update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve.

Chinese shares rose as leaders met in Beijing to set economic plans and targets for the coming year. The government announced plans to expand trial private pension programs to the entire country, beginning Dec. 15.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.7% to 20,501.14 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.6% to 3,454.52.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index advanced 1.3% to 39,897.13, led by buying of technology shares. Advantest Corp., which makes equipment for testing computer chips, gained 4.6%, while chip maker Tokyo Electron was up 0.7%.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 2,464.00, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia edged 0.2% lower.

Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.7% and the Sensex in India was little changed. The SET in Bangkok picked up 0.3%.

U.S. stock indexes resumed climbing on Wednesday after an update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to break its first two-day losing streak in nearly a month and finished at 6,084.19. Big Tech stocks helped drive the Nasdaq composite up 1.8% to 20,034.89. It was its first close above 20,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, dipped 0.2% to 44,148.56.

Inflation in the U.S. ticked up to 2.7% in November from a year earlier from 2.6% in October, fueled by pricier used cars, hotel rooms and groceries. That shows some price pressures remain elevated, but not enough to prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates at its meeting next week.

The Fed began trimming rates in September from a two-decade high to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation.

Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times this year, with the latest coming last week.

Tesla jumped 5.9% to finish above $420 at $424.77. It’s a level that Elon Musk made famous in a 2018 tweet when he said he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

Stitch Fix soared 44.3% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue.

GE Vernova rallied 5% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500. The energy company that spun out of General Electric said it would pay a 25 cent dividend every three months, and it approved a plan to send up to another $6 billion to its shareholders by buying back its own stock.

Albertsons fell 1.5% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington had nixed the supermarket giants’ merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition.

Macy’s slipped 0.8% after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $1 of revenue.

In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 5 cents to $70.34 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil, the international standard, gained 11 cents to $73.63 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 152.25 Japanese yen from 152.46 yen. The euro rose to $1.0507 from $1.0496.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.