Asia stocks surge on Fed rate-cut bets as inflation data clears path for December cut

On a Thursday morning in December 2024, a single inflation figure from the United States — consumer prices rising exactly as forecast — became the quiet permission slip that markets across Asia had been waiting for. With the Federal Reserve's path toward a rate cut now nearly certain, capital moved with conviction: Tokyo crossed 40,000, Seoul and Taipei climbed, and even Australia's currency found its footing after a bruising day. These moments remind us that global markets, for all their complexity, often hinge on the resolution of a single, shared uncertainty.