BEIJING — Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday after signs of enduring upward pressure on American prices added to expectations of higher interest rates for longer.Don’t miss: Chinese economic data paint an upbeat picture. U.S. companies operating... BEIJING — Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday after signs of enduring upward pressure on American prices added to expectations of higher interest rates for longer.Don’t miss: Chinese economic data paint an upbeat picture. U.S.
See: Minneapolis Fed joined St. Louis and Cleveland in pushing for 50-basis-point discount-rate hike last month“Inflation expectations are climbing again,” Brian Levitt of Invesco said in a report. “The Fed pause may not be coming now until the middle of the year, at the earliest.” There are “very few to no signs of any disinflationary process outside of energy and commodity prices” despite rate hikes by the European Central Bank, said Carsten Brzeski of ING in a report.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 SPX lost 0.5% to 3,951.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA edged up less than 0.1% to 32,661.84. The Nasdaq COMP fell 0.7% to 11,379.48. The Fed has raised its benchmark lending rate to 4.5% to 4.75% — from close to zero at the start of 2022 — in an effort to cool inflation to the traditionally targeted vicinity of 2%.
Some retailers have already offered discouraging forecasts due to inflation and other pressure on consumer spending.