Asian shares mostly gain amid cautious relief over U.S.-China agreement

TOKYO AP Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday as a cautious sense of relief spread through regional markets after the U S and China agreed to a -day pause in their pact war Japan s benchmark Nikkei lost to Australia s S P ASX shed to South Korea s Kospi surged to Hong Kong s Hang Seng jumped to while the Shanghai Composite gained to The relief over the transaction truce between the U S and China is tepid among global businesses and investors given uncertainty over how long it might last and where tariffs might go in the months ahead In the absence of a lasting deal uncertainty over where tariff rates will settle and the impact of those already implemented will remain key factors in our macroeconomic forecasts stated Brian Coulton chief economist at Fitch Ratings A record overnight that demonstrated U S inflation unexpectedly slowed last month helped drive buying that pushed the S P up to The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to and the Nasdaq composite climbed to The S P fell nearly below its record last month but has since recovered on hopes that President Donald Trump will ease his stiff tariffs on trading partners worldwide before they create a recession and send inflation spiking higher The S P which sits at the center of a multitude of k accounts is back within of its all-time high set in February and positive again for the year so far Tuesday s description announced that even with all the uncertainty around agreement and even with various businesses rushing to import products from other countries before tariffs raise their prices inflation slowed to last month from in March Such input pulls the business sector further from a worst-case scenario called stagflation where the market stagnates but inflation remains high The Federal Reserve has no good way to fix that toxic combination It could try to lower rates to help the market for example but that would likely worsen inflation in the short term Even with Tuesday s encouraging account economists and analysts say inflation may still run higher in coming months because of Trump s tariffs That will likely leave the Fed waiting for more information to guide their decision on whether and when to cut interest rates in order to help the business activity It s similar to the wait that investors in general are enduring With the Fed set to make no moves on interest rates for the time being markets will likely pact with negotiation and reconciliation headlines according to Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo global co-head and co-chief resources officer of multi-asset solutions within Goldman Sachs Asset Management On Wall Street stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry were strong Nvidia rose and was the biggest single force pushing upward on the S P It s partnering with Saudi Arabia s sovereign wealth fund-owned AI startup Humain to ship chips to the Middle Eastern nation to help power a new records center project In the bond field Treasury yields ticked higher with hopes for the U S market The yield on the -year Treasury rose to from late Monday The two-year Treasury yield which moves more closely with expectations for Fed action ticked up to from In potency trading benchmark U S crude fell cents to a barrel Brent crude the international standard declined cents to a barrel In currency trading the U S dollar edged down to Japanese yen from yen The euro cost up from AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed Source