Asia shares enjoy the calm before inflation test

Asian stocks got the week off to a quiet start on Monday as a holiday in Japan removed one source of recent volatility, and investors hunkered down for major U.S. and Chinese economic data for an update on global growth prospects. Key for the Federal Reserve will be U.S. consumer prices on Wednesday where economists look for rises of 0.2% in both the headline and core, with the annual core slowing a tick to 3.2%. “Moreover, we expect a robust 0.8% m/m increase in headline retail sales, pointing to continued resilience in the engine of the economy, the consumer, on the back of solid income and wealth fundamentals.”Read More