A last-minute spike carried Australian shares back toward the session high on a day when banks and miners led gains. Taking back about two-thirds of yesterday’s retreat, the S&P/ASX 200 settled up 0.4% at 6638.0.  

Westpac led the “Big Four” banks, rising 1.7%, while heavily-weighted BHP and Rio Tinto added 1.7% and 2.3%, respectively. Consumer discretionary stock also were higher, helping offset weakness in the big energy companies, consumer staples, technology and property trusts.   

Rallying technology shares drove U.S. stock indexes higher intraday, putting the Dow Jones Industrial Average on track to post its sixth consecutive session of gains.  
 
The blue-chip index climbed 138 points, or 0.5%, to 27048. The S&P 500 ticked up 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8%.  
With not much economic data on the docket for Wednesday, analysts said they were looking ahead to central bank meetings in the coming days. Both the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve are expected to cut interest rates in September.   

Gains among technology shares helped push major indexes higher, with Apple extending a rally that began Tuesday after it unveiled a trio of new iPhones and monthly prices for its new video-streaming service. Shares of the phone maker were recently up 2.7%.  
 
Other technology stocks jumped as well, with Facebook, Micron Technology and Intel all rising at least 1%.  
Earnings-related news drove additional swings among individual stocks.   Dave & Buster’s Entertainment slid 4.6% after cutting its guidance.  GameStop shed 11% after reporting a loss for the most-recent quarter and giving a downbeat forecast for the year.   

Gold futures reclaimed the key $1,500-an-ounce mark, as traders weighed President Donald Trump’s latest tweet calling for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates down to zero, ahead of the central bank’s meeting next week.  
 
Prices for the yellow metal had wavered between modest losses and gains early Wednesday, after four consecutive sessions of declines.  
 Trump tweeting Wednesday morning that the “Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt.” The Fed will meet next week and it’s widely expected to announce an interest-rate cut on Wednesday.   

Oil futures fell, with U.S. prices settling at their lowest in just over a week, as a report that President Donald Trump discussed easing sanctions on Iran raised the potential return of Iranian oil to the global market.  

Also contributing to the oil-price decline, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its oil demand forecasts for this year and next, in a monthly report issued Wednesday.  

 October West Texas Intermediate oil fell $1.65, or 2.9%, to settle at $55.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest finish since Sept. 3, FactSet data show.   

The dollar rose, breaking through $1.10 per euro after the U.S. Labor Department said producer prices unexpectedly rose 0.1% in August, a sign that inflation could be building in the economy.  

Investors have been trimming bets on aggressive rate-cutting measures by the Federal Reserve at the central bank’s meeting next week. Federal-funds futures show an 11% probability that officials hold rates steady and an 89% chance of a quarter-point reduction. 
Last week there were 11% odds of a half-point rate cut, with the balance of bets favouring a smaller reduction.  
 
Tomorrow, the European Central Bank meets and officials there are expected to cut interest rates and deploy other stimulus measures. The WSJ Dollar Index climbed 0.2% to 91.46.  

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.8% in late-morning trade, with Germany’s DAX up 0.7% and France’s CAC 40 up 0.4%.  Shares in the London Stock Exchange Group PLC gained 4.2% after Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. made an offer to buy it in a $36.56 billion cash-and-share deal.  
 
Meanwhile, shares in Prosus, the Naspers Ltd. spinoff, had their debut on Amsterdam’s Euronext. A valuation of nearly EUR120 billion ($132.51 billion) made it Europe’s largest listed consumer internet company.  
  
Zara-owner Industria de Diseno Textil SA, the world’s largest fashion retailer by sales, saw its share price fall 2.6% after it reported earnings for the first half of the year.  
 
Investors have shown signs in recent days of expecting less stimulus from the European Central Bank when it meets on Thursday.   

China said Wednesday that higher tariffs wouldn’t be levied against a variety of U.S. imports for a year, starting Sept. 17, and that it would continue to review more goods for exemption.  
 
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng led gains, climbing 1.8%, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1%. The Shanghai Composite was the exception, with a fall of 0.4%.  Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.8% after positive jobs data from the country helped to bolster confidence in its economy, suggesting that government stimulus efforts were proving fruitful.  

 Indian shares closed higher, with the benchmark Sensex ending up 0.3% at 37270.82, lifted by financial and automobile stocks. The market remained focused on developments related to the U.S.-China trade talks and global economic data. Bank stocks were higher, with Yes Bank being the top gainer, rising 13%, while IndusInd Bank was up 2.8%.