Seoul city skyline in the early morning on December 16, 2020.
Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks opened higher on Tuesday, tracking gains on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rising to new highs.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.71%.
Japanese Nikkei 225 Index Shares rose 1.6%, with the Topix rising 1.19%.
The Kospi rose 1.64% and the Kosdaq rose 1.49%. South Korea’s inflation rate rose to 1.5% year-on-year in November, higher than the 1.3% reading in October and lower than the 1.7% expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.011%
Traders are bracing for a wave of economic reports and comments from Federal Reserve officials that will influence the future direction of interest rates.
The US S&P 500 index rose 0.24% overnight to close at 6,047.15 points. The Nasdaq rose 0.97% to close at 19,403.95 points. Both indexes hit record highs during the session and closed at record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29%, or 128.65 points, to close at 44,782.00 points. The blue-chip index briefly broke through the 45,000-point mark that day, a key level the stock hit several times last week.
Traders will focus on Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for November, which could provide insight into the strength of the labor market ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on Dec. 17-18. Fed funds futures are currently pricing in a 76% chance the central bank will cut rates during the policy collection period, according to CME. Fed Watch Tool.
—CNBC’s Alex Harring and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
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