Wall Street was mixed in muted trading early Thursday as investors waited for more U.S. economic data amid rising hope that Western economies can avoid a recession despite higher interest rates meant to cool inflation.
The Commerce Department was due to issue its first of three estimates for U.S. economic growth in October-December later Thursday. The economy likely rolled out of 2022 with momentum, registering decent growth in the face of painful inflation, high interest rates and rising concern that a recession may be months away.
"There's increasing confidence the economy may not require a recession to tame the inflation beast," said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a report. Germany's SAP said it's cutting up to 3,000 jobs worldwide, or about 2.5% of its workforce, after a sharp drop in profits at Europe's biggest software company. 3M, maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics, announced Tuesday that it was slashing 2,500 manufacturing jobs worldwide.
Many investors expect the Fed to ease off rate hike plans as economic activity cools and start to cut rates before the end of this year. The Fed has said it expects to keep rates high at least through the end of the year to extinguish inflation. The Kospi in Seoul gained 1.7% to 2,468.65 after South Korea's economic output shrank by 0.4%, as expected, in the final quarter of 2022 from the previous quarter.
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