Easing US Inflation Fears Lifts Asian Stocks

Asian stock markets rose in early trading on Monday, supported by easing concerns about inflation in the United States, which reduced the likelihood of another hike in US interest rates, coinciding with a week featuring several US economic data releases.

The Nikkei 225 main index for Japanese stocks rose by 2.5% to 70,037.61 points, surpassing the 70,000-point level for the first time in three months.

The S&P/ASX 200 index for Australian stocks climbed 0.1% to 8,691.90 points, while the Hang Seng Index for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange remained stable at 23,971.55 points, the same level it closed at on Friday, the last day of the previous trading week.

The Shanghai and Seoul stock exchanges did not open today due to national holidays.

Stocks linked to artificial intelligence attracted buyers; shares of Japanese chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose by 5.5%, and SoftBank Group Corp., which focuses on technology investments, gained 3.3%.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the Taiwanese electronic chip maker, also rose by 2.6%.

US stocks ended last week's trading on Friday near all-time highs, after the latest data related to the US labor market helped ease concerns about rising inflation rates and interest rates.

The US government announced that employers across the country added 29,000 net jobs—the difference between new hires and layoffs—during the past month.

The figure came in below economists' expectations and represents a slowdown compared to the net hiring rate recorded in August (Ab) of 133,000 jobs.

Markets interpreted this data as an indicator of a reduced likelihood that the Federal Reserve (the central bank) would raise its benchmark interest rate, having previously raised it last month for the first time in three years in an attempt to curb painful increases in living costs.