MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares gained 0.11%, but that flipped to a 0.22% drop if Japanese shares were removed
Japanese stocks gained amid a weakening yen on Wednesday while Chinese stocks slid, with overall regional trading lacking strong direction in a holiday-shortened week that ends with a key reading of U.S. inflation.
Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.93% to 40,775.62 as of 0155 GMT, heading back towards the all-time high of 41,087.75 hit last Friday.
The yen inched toward the 152-per-dollar level that some see as the red zone for central bank intervention, after Japanese authorities stepped in at 151.94 in October of 2022. The yen was around 0.1% weaker at 151.73.
The yen has been slipping despite the BoJ’s first interest rate hike for 17 years last week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and mainland Chinese blue chips each shed nearly 0.4%, reversing gains from the previous session.
Overall, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares gained 0.11%, but that flipped to a 0.22% drop if Japanese shares were removed.
It is choppy, directionless trading, and there is a good reason for that: we have hit that time of the quarter when rebalancing flows are impacting the market, according to Tony Sycamore, a strategist at IG.
Another reason is that two key events – the release of the U.S. Fed’s favoured inflation indicator and public comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell – come on Friday, when most markets are closed for a holiday, he said.
Inflation data have not been doing what is expected, and in the event of a hot reading, the bumpy road that the Federal Reserve has been talking about suddenly starts to look more like a mountain trek, he added.
