Asia-Pacific stocks track Wall Street higher

Most Asia-Pacific stocks rose as a Wall Street rebound brought some cheer to the region's markets on the last trading day of the year.

Data showed US jobless claims for the week ending December 24 rose more than expected, signalling some cooling in the economy.

That boosted hopes among investors that the Federal Reserve's rate hikes will ease. The US central bank's aggressive campaign against inflation had sparked fears of a recession as higher borrowing costs slow down the economy.

Boosted by that optimism, the three main indexes on Wall Street ended higher, and Asia-Pacific markets followed suit. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and Singapore were up, while Tokyo was flat.

In early European trade, London, Frankfurt and Paris were all down.

Trading volumes have been thin in the last week of 2022, with investors in a low-risk mood looking ahead to next year, analysts said.

"Going into the new year, I think investors are going to be focusing on the same things we were focusing on this year, and that's where the central banks are going to take interest rates, and are the inflation numbers going to force them to continue to be very aggressive," Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying.

Central bank policymakers have been particularly concerned about the jobs market, where demand for workers has exceeded supply, with wages picking up quickly.

Rising wages have fueled fears that the elevated cost of delivering services could become permanent, making it harder to bring down consumer prices. But the latest jobless claims data injected some hope that the labour market in the world's biggest economy was cooling.

"The main theme for the first half of next year will be economic slowdown, as a result of rate hikes," said Chihiro Ota at SMBC Nikko Securities. Markets are also concerned about the impact on global supply chains by the Covid surge in China-the world's second-largest economywhich has rolled back much of its strict zero-Covid strategy in recent weeks.

South Korea became the latest country to impose a negative virus test requirement for travellers from China. The United States and Japan are among the other nations that have put China-specific restrictions in place because of the outbreak.

However, in oil markets, major importer China's reopening has sparked some optimism that demand will rise next year, boosting prices.

The Brent and West Texas Intermediate contracts were both trading higher. Japan's industrial output edged down in November from a month earlier, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the ministry, industrial output in November declined 0.1 percent from the previous month, with the seasonally adjusted index of output at factories and mines standing at 95.2 against the base of 100 for 2015.

The figure for November follows a downwardly revised decline of 3.2 percent in October and marks the third straight month of decrease, the ministry's data showed.

The ministry's data set also showed the index of industrial shipments dropped 0.5 percent to 93.0, while inventories were up 0.3 percent to 103.6 in the recording period.

The ministry's survey revealed that looking ahead, manufacturers polled expect industrial output here to rise 2.8 percent in December, but drop 0.6 percent in January.

About 19,000 households on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido were cut off power for an unknown reason morning, the NHK broadcaster reported, citing the electricity regulator, according to Sputnik.