Asia-Pacific markets set for recovery on revived Fed cut hopes

Asia-Pacific markets started the week higher after the New York Federal Reserve President signaled that a third rate cut could happen this year.

On Friday, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams suggested the Fed could lower its key interest rate from here as labor market weakness poses a bigger economic threat than higher inflation.

The Fed has just one meeting left for 2025, which will take place on Dec. 9-10 stateside. The target rate is currently at 3.75% to 4.00%.

Fed funds futures are currently pricing in around a 70% chance of a quarter percentage point cut, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Last week, Asian markets declined across the board as traders fled from tech stocks, with heavyweights like Softbank, Samsung Electronics and Baidu falling.

South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.28%, while the small cap Kosdaq rose 0.5%. Samsung gained over 3.2% in early trade.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day 1.08% up, rebounding from a 1.59% loss on Friday.

On Monday, shares of logistics group Qube climbed nearly 20% after Macquarie Asset Management made an offer of 11.6 billion Australian dollars ($7.49 billion) to acquire the firm.

Mining giant BHP also rose about 0.7% after the company announced it was no longer considering a merger with British miner Anglo American.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 25,541, about 1.27% higher than the HSI’s last close of 25,220.02.

Japan’s markets are closed for a public holiday.

On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes posted a rebound, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 1.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.88% and the S&P 500 finished 0.98% higher.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.