by a quarter-percentage point — hitting a new 15-year high of 4.75%. But some worried it might opt for a bigger half-point increase, heaping pain on people with loans, especially the 1.4 million or so households in the U.K. that will have to refinance their mortgages over the rest of the year.
In Asian trading, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to finish at 33,264.88. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.6% to 7,195.50. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.4% to 2,593.70. Markets were closed in Hong Kong and Shanghai for the Dragon Boat Festival, a national holiday. . That pushed “back against the idea that the U.S.-China relationship could be warming with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit,” Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG said in a commentary.. But Blinken said China was not ready to resume military-to-military contacts.
“Global growth is showing near-term resilience but with core inflation remaining stubbornly high, central banks will have to continue tightening policy in the coming months," it said.that"the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.” He said again that a couple more rate increases may be on the way, though the speed of the hikes is likely to slow after moving at a furious speed since early 2022.