Wall Street rally lifts Asia share markets

Wall Street rally lifts Asia share markets

AFP/Hong Kong

Asian markets extended gains yesterday, tracking a rally in New York, on optimism that the Federal Reserve’s plan to hike interest rates will help bring inflation under control.

While there remains plenty of concern about the war in Ukraine, analysts said some confidence had seeped back into trading floors as investors bet on consumer resilience and economies continue to reopen.

Fed boss Jerome Powell said Monday that the central bank was prepared to act more aggressively on lifting borrowing costs if inflation — already at a 40-year high — does not fall quickly enough.

Officials lifted rates last week by a quarter of a point but some have advocated hikes of half a point, a view Powell suggested he was open to, adding that he was happy the economy was strong enough to withstand such a move.

While the faster and steeper rate of hikes would make it costlier for investors to borrow, commentators said the Fed’s stance gave them confidence it could get a grip on prices.

“We are positive for equities for this year,” Seema Shah, of Principal Global Investors, told Bloomberg Television.

She added that while the near-term outlook would be challenging with recession risks rising, “we still think