Stocks Edge Higher, Dollar Sags Eyeing Fed Pause

A passerby walks past an electric monitor displaying various countries' stock price index outside a bank in Tokyo, Japan, on March 22, 2023. Issei Kato/Reuters

Global shares edged higher and the dollar held near three-week lows on Wednesday as traders were all but certain that the U.S. Federal Reserve will refrain from hiking interest rates later in the session.

Overnight, the much-watched U.S. CPI report showed prices barely rose in May, with just a 0.1 percent increase from the prior month. On an annual basis, consumer prices rose 4 percent, the smallest in more than two years, slowing from April’s 4.9 percent.