Stock market today: World shares are mixed after Wall St hits fresh records on hopes for rate cuts

Share opened lower Thursday in Europe after most Asian benchmarks gained, tracking a Wall Street rally driven by hopes that inflation is heading back in the right direction.

The optimism came from a report Wednesday showing U.S. consumers had to pay prices for gasoline, car insurance and everything else in April that were 3.4% higher overall than a year earlier, less than March’s inflation rate of 3.5%.

The slowdown was a relief after reports for the consumer price index, or CPI, earlier this year had consistently come in worse than expected. The report built on expectations that the Federal Reserve might cut its main interest rate this year, the major preoccupation for most investors.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1.4% to 38,920.26, even after the government reported that the Japanese economy contracted at a 2% annual rate in the January-March quarter.