BEIJING – Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday after U.S. inflation ticked up and Japanese machinery orders fell.
Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney rose. Tokyo was off less than 0.5%. Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index closed 0.3% higher in choppy trading.
Tech and consumer stocks gained on optimism the vaccine rollout will allow business activity to return to normal. Johnson & Johnson declined after U.S.
regulators suspended use of its single-dose vaccine to investigate possibly dangerous blood clots. The U.S. government reported consumer prices increased by a stronger-than-expected 0.6% in March, the fastest rate since 2012.