beijing asian stock markets were mixed thursday amid hopes western economies can avoid a recession despite higher interest rates to cool inflation the hang seng hsi in hong kong rose 17 while the nikkei 225 nik in tokyo shed 03 the kospi 180721 in seoul gained 09 and benchmarks in new zealand nz50gr  singapore sti and indonesia jakidx advanced markets in china india and australia were closed for holidays wall street ended wednesday little changed after recovering from a slump early in the day investors are optimistic the united states and european economies can avoid a recession despite warnings by federal reserve and other central bank officials that rate hikes to cool economic growth and inflation will stay in place for an extended period “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 on wall street the benchmark sp 500 index spx lost less than 01 to 401622 after rebounding from a morning loss of 17 the dow jones industrial average djia recovered from a similar drop to end up less than 01 to 3374348 the nasdaq composite comp fell 2091 points or 02 to 1131336 analysts are forecasting sp 500 companies over the next couple weeks will report their first drop in quarterly earnings per share since 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic traders expect the fed to raise its benchmark lending rate by another 025 percentage points at its next update on feb 1 that would be another reduction in the margin of increase from 05 percentage points last month and four hikes of 075 points earlier 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 in energy markets benchmark us crude clh23 rose 29 cents to 8044 per barrel in electronic trading on the new york mercantile exchange the contract gained 2 cents on wednesday to 8015 brent crude brnh23  the price basis for international oil trading advanced 14 cents to 8633 per barrel in london it lost 1 cent the previous session to 8612 the dollar usdjpy fell to 12928 yen from wednesday’s 12955 yen