Nikkei leads Asia's gains; US futures slip ahead of CPI
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 · 2 takes, written as the session ran and never rewritten with hindsight. Where a take stated something false, it is corrected and the original wording is shown under it.
The setup
Overnight tape, futures and the day's calendar · filed 06:45 ET
Asian equities finished mixed overnight. The Nikkei rose 0.83%, while KOSPI surged 3.68%, indicating a strong risk-on sentiment. Watch today's CPI readings at 8:30 AM — Core CPI m/m is expected at 0.2%, crucial for market direction.
What it was watching
The close
What the tape actually did · filed 17:25 ET
The tape closed mixed, but tech stocks led the charge, with the Nasdaq up 0.54%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.26%, buoyed by strong performances from mega-cap names like AAPL and MSFT. Tomorrow, watch for any shifts in sentiment as traders digest today's rally and assess upcoming earnings reports.
What it was watching
Elsewhere that session
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How this brief was made
Written Wednesday, August 12, 2026 from that session's own market snapshot. Since October 7, 2026 every figure, name, time and rating action in a take is written by code from that snapshot, and a language model writes only the headline and the read around them, which are machine-checked against those facts before the take is filed. Takes before that date were written whole by the model and checked only for numbers and scheduled events. A take that aged badly is left standing on purpose: an archive rewritten with hindsight is not a record. The one thing that is changed is a statement that was false when it was written. That is corrected in the text, the original wording is shown under the take, and the change is logged on the corrections page. Not investment advice.
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