Asia-Pacific stocks set for muted open; S&P 500 sails to record close on Wall Street

Asia-Pacific stocks set for muted open; S&P 500 sails to record close on Wall Street

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Friday morning trade, following gains overnight on Wall Street that saw the sailing to a record closing high. The in Japan edged 0.16% in early trade while the Topix sat below the flatline. Over in South Korea, the edged 0.57% higher. Shares in Australia were muted as the traded below the flatline. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.14% higher. S&P 500 rises to record close Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 rose nearly 0.5% to a record closing high of 4,239.18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 19.1 points to 34,466.24 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.78% to 14,020.33. The gains came on the back of the release of a closely-watched U.S. inflation report. U.S. consumer prices jumped 5% in May — the fastest pace since August 2008 — the . That was higher than a gain of 4.7% forecasted by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. Currencies and oil The , which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.073 after swinging around the 90 level for much of this week. The traded at 109.37 per dollar, stronger than levels above 109.6 seen against the