The Sydney Opera House Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Asia-Pacific markets are set to extend gains as Wall Street continued to rally for a second straight day and investors look toward first-quarter inflation figures from Australia.
Australia’s consumer price index is expected to rise 3.5%, marking its fifth straight quarter of slowing inflation, according to economists polled by Reuters.
Futures for the S&P/ASX 200 point to a stronger open, at 7,725 compared to the last close of 7,683.5.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set to rise, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,030 and its counterpart in Osaka at 37,960 against the index’s last close of 37,552.16.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,925 pointing to a stronger open after the HSI led gains in Asia on Tuesday and closed at 16,828.93.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes climbed for a second straight session on Tuesday as a strong batch of corporate earnings assuaged concerns over higher rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.69%, to mark a four day winning streak. The S&P 500 gained 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite saw the largest gain of 1.59%.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.