Asian stocks rise following Wall Street’s gains, Japan’s Nikkei index at 33-year high

Asian stocks rose after Wall Street gains on optimism that the Fed was close to ending the tightening cycle, as the Nikkei 225 Japanese equity index reached a 33-year high.

The Nikkei 225 index surpassed its June daily trading peak, with strong corporate earnings and a weak yen boosting the index’s year-to-date rise to nearly 30%.

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks also rose at the opening. US futures were little changed after the S&P 500 rose above 4,500 points on Friday for its third straight weekly gain.

Investors add to their bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates after recent data suggested the world’s largest economy was slowing.

Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice president for oversight affairs, said last Friday that central officials had already reached or approached the end of the monetary policy tightening campaign.

However, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said policymakers were not confident that inflation was on track to reach the official target of 2%.