Asia rides Wall St rally, dollar sags on US inflation relief
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Asian stock markets rallied on Thursday, buoyed by Wall Street's surge to all-time peaks overnight after a milder U.S. inflation report raised expectations the Federal Reserve will deliver at least two rate cuts this year. The dollar remained on a downtrend, sagging to fresh multi-week lows against peers including the euro and sterling. U.S. Treasury yields extended their retreat in Tokyo trading, sinking to new six-week troughs. That helped the beaten-down yen to continue its recovery, even as data showed the Japanese economy contracted more than expected in the first quarter. Gold marched back toward record levels, and crude oil added to gains after rebounding strongly overnight from a two-month trough. U.S. data on Wednesday showed the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.3% in April, below an expected 0.4% gain, raising hopes that the Federal Reserve can cut interest rates twice this year. Fed funds futures show 52 basis points ...