Asian shares end the week with a whimper, yen back to intervention watch
Asian shares are ending the week with a whimper after a recent rally to 26-month highs drew profit-taking, while the relentless strength in the U.S. dollar pushed the Japanese yen towards the intervention zone.
Europe is set for a flat open, having bounced a day earlier as rate cuts there gathered pace. Both EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE were little changed but S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% and Nasdaq futures gained 0.2%.
Overnight, the Swiss National Bank cut rates for a second time while the Bank of England opened the door to an easing in August after holding rates steady. Sterling, the Swiss franc and the euro fell, lifting the dollar broadly.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6% on Friday, dragged lower by a pull-back in technology shares, tracking a mixed session on Wall Street overnight. [.N]
The index is set for a weekly gain of 0.9% after rising to its highest since April 2022 on Wednesday as a recent run of soft U.S. data reinforced bets of two rate cuts from the Federal Reserve to come this year.
«We're seeing more and more of these central banks either open the door or continue cutting rates and that's a really good thing, particularly as we're starting to see some softer data consistently come out of the U.S.,» said Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG.
«But in the short term, I think we should look for more of these end-of-month, end-of-quarter flows. In the medium term, I think the market will continue to back those tech and AI winners.»
Japan's Nikkei was off 0.1% and the
