beijing ap asian stock markets fell wednesday after us inflation edged down less than expected fueling concern the federal reserve might think more interest rate hikes are needed wall street ended mixed tuesday after inflation slowed to 64 in january from the previous month’s 65 that was down from june’s threedecade high of 91 but hotter than the consensus expectation of 62 core inflation which strips out more volatile food and energy prices to give a clearer view of the trend rose to 04 over a month earlier from december’s 03 “disinflation trends are in danger which could prompt the fed to both deliver more rate hikes and for them to stay higher for longer” said edward moya of oanda in a report the shanghai composite index shcomp lost 03 to 328260 and the nikkei 225 nik in tokyo gave up 04 to 27501 the hang seng hsi in hong kong tumbled 16 to 2076652 the kospi 180721 in seoul retreated 14 to 243057 and sydney’s spasx 200 xjo sank 1 to 735680 india’s sensex 1 was down less than 01 at 6102203 new zealand and jakarta advanced while singapore and bangkok declined stock prices have swung between gains and losses over the past year as traders try to figure out how far the fed and other central banks will go to extinguish surging inflation some worry they might be willing to tip the global economy into a recession traders expect two more us rate hikes of 025 percentage points this year to slow business activity and hiring some expect cuts to start as soon the end of this year despite comments by chair jerome powell and other fed officials that borrowing costs might have to stay elevated for an extended period to get inflation to their 2 target if inflation stays above 55 that “puts us on track for another four to six fed rate hikes” said clifford bennett of acy securities in a report “further retrenchment of the consumer and business investment is a certainty” bennett said on wall street the benchmark sp 500 index spx edged down less than 01 to 413613 the dow jones industrial average djia lost 05 to 3408927 while the nasdaq comp gained 06 to 1196015 the fed’s benchmark lending rate stands at 450 to 475 up from close to zero a year ago investors have been raising their forecasts for how high the fed will take rates by the summer and they’re now betting on a 192 probability that its key rate will top 55 in july that’s up from just a 02 probability seen a month ago according to cme group the market’s expectations for the fed have been driving yields higher in the bond market in particular the twoyear treasury has shot to its highest level since november egged on last week by a strongerthanexpected report on the us jobs market the twoyear yield rose to 461 from 452 late monday it initially zigzagged up down and back again after the release of the inflation report the 10year yield tmubmusd10y  which helps set rates for mortgages and other loans rose to 375 from 370 in energy markets benchmark us crude cl1 lost 116 to 7787 per barrel in electronic trading on the new york mercantile exchange the contract fell 108 on tuesday to 7906 brent crude brn00  the price basis for international oil trading shed 119 to 8445 per barrel in london it lost 103 the previous session to 8558 the dollar gained to 13311 yen usdjpy from tuesday’s 13306 yen the euro eurusd declined to 10718 from 10739