Asia-Pacific markets Live Updates: Japan Nikkei, Singapore GDP

Investors in Asia assessed Japan’s October consumer price index data. The core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, rose 2.3% from a year ago, slightly above the estimated 2.2%, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That’s cooler than 2.4% in the previous month.

The overall CPI came in at 2.3%, versus 2.5% in September.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 0.79%

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 0.79% while the broad-based Topix rose 0.53%.

Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 eked out gains of 0.79%.

South Korean blue-chip rose over 1% while small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.75%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.33%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.14%.

Singapore third-quarter GDP expanded 5.4% from a year ago, notably outpacing the revised 3.0% in the prior quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 3.2%, accelerating from the 0.5% in the second quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The Ministry also raised its projection of this year’s economic growth to “around 3.5%,” from “2.0 to 3.0%”.

Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 462 points

Overnight stateside, the three major indexes rose, on track to close the week higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 462 points, or 1.06%, to finish at 43,270.35, while the S&P 500 gained 0.53% to close at 5,948.71. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.03% to end at 18,972.42.

Crude oil prices rose

Crude oil prices rose more than 2% after Putin confirmed that Russia had fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine and warned that more could follow, the latest in a series of escalations.