Asia-Pacific markets climb after Wall Street gains on EU tariff delay

Asia-Pacific markets climbed Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains on investor optimism after U.S. President Donald Trump extended the deadline for a 50% tariff on European Union imports until July 9.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.06%, while the Topix added 0.88%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.65% and the small-cap Kosdaq Index advanced 0.53%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.21%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.25% at the open, while mainland China’s CSI 300 climbed 0.21%.

Australia’s inflation rate rose 2.4% in April, unchanged since February but higher than the median estimate of 2.3% polled by Reuters.

Over in New Zealand, its central bank expectedly cut the benchmark rate to 3.25%. The New Zealand dollar strengthened modestly following the announcement to trade at 0.5947 against the greenback.

 as investors await earnings results from Nvidia and the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s May meeting, due out Wednesday afternoon U.S. time.

Overnight, the three major stock averages closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 740.58 points, or 1.78%, to finish at 42,343.65, while the S&P 500 rose 2.05% to 5,921.54. Both snapped four-day losing streaks. The Nasdaq Composite popped 2.47% to 19,199.16 as technology names like Tesla saw outsized gains.

— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.