Asian shares rally on US rate relief, yen jumps on BOJ chatter
By Stella Qiu
SYDNEY (Reuters) — Asian shares rallied in relief on Thursday while the dollar nursed losses after the world's most powerful central banker reassured investors that U.S. rates would fall this year, setting the scene for policymakers in Europe.
Japan's Nikkei reversed earlier gains and the yen jumped past the 149 per dollar level to the highest in a month as momentum builds that a move from the Bank of Japan to end negative interest rates could come as soon as this month.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6%, while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8%, after hitting a fresh all-time high earlier in the session.
Japanese workers' nominal pay in January grew 2% from a year earlier, data showed, accelerating from a gain of 0.8% the previous month. In other news, Japan's major union won big pay hikes in 2024 wage talks. BOJ board member Junko Nakagawa said on Thursday the economy was moving steadily towards sustainably achieving the central bank's 2% inflation target.
On speculation that the BOJ could move this month, the dollar lost 0.5% to a one-month low of 148.61 yen.
Chinese blue chips rose 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was an outlier, down 0.3%. Traders are waiting for China's January-February trade data to gauge the strength of the world's second-largest economy.
Elsewhere, markets were higher, with Taiwan's share market hitting a record high, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stuck to the script by saying the Fed still expects to cut rates later this year, even though continued progress on inflation «is not assured». [.N]
That kept bets of a rate cut in June alive at an 84% probability. Longer-term bond yields slipped, gold
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