[MARKET UPDATE] Asia-Pac stocks begin mostly higher as the region takes its cue from the positive handover from Wall St, where equities were underpinned by earnings and with rate hike bets were unwound following inline CPI data

Inline CPI prints have a well-worn pattern: the absence of upside surprise is itself the trade, since positioning ahead of the data tends to build in a hawkish tail, and an on-consensus print unwinds that premium through the front end and into equities. The transmission here runs from pricing of the policy path at the short end of the curve into rate-sensitive equity multiples, which is why earnings resilience and softer hike bets compound rather than compete as drivers. Regional sessions following a strong Wall St handover of this kind have historically shown the cleanest follow-through in markets with the tightest correlation to US rates and the dollar, with the more domestically driven indices tending to lag. What distinguishes durable moves from one-session relief is whether the repricing survives the next round of central bank commentary and subsequent inflation prints, as stop-start episodes of hike-bet unwinding have repeatedly been retraced when officials pushed back. Worth noting is whether the move is concentrated in duration-sensitive sectors or broad-based, since narrow leadership after data-driven rallies has tended to fade faster.