Asian stock markets mixed ahead of Fed

Asian markets were mixed after the Fed meeting and the U.S. inflation rate hit a two-year low. Asia-Pacific markets were mixed after U.S. inflation rose to a two-year low of 4 percent in May. That could give the Fed room to pause and skip a rate hike this week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1 percent, just below the Nikkei’s all-time high of 39,000 in December 1989. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.29 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.19 percent. Mainland Chinese markets were also stronger. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.14 percent and the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.3 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was marginally lower, the only major index in the red, and the Kosdaq lost a wider 0.3 percent. South Korea's unemployment rate came in at 2.5 percent in May, falling for the second consecutive month, below the 2.6 percent recorded in April.