Asian shares rise as U.S. rate cut fever lingers, oil holds gains
By Stella Qiu
SYDNEY (Reuters) — Asian shares tracked Wall Street higher on Wednesday as U.S. rate cut fever lingered near the year's end, while oil held onto gains from the past two days after attacks by Houthi militants on ships in the Red Sea disrupted maritime trade.
Meanwhile, the yen nursed losses at a one-week trough and Japanese yields extended declines after the Bank of Japan held its policy steady and gave no sign on when it may end negative interest rates, further aiding risk appetite.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6%, aided by a 1.2% jump in Hong Kong stocks, a 0.5% rise in Australia's resources-heavy shares and a 1% jump in South Korea.
Japan's Nikkei surged 1.6% to the highest in about one month, building on gains from Tuesday. The yen was fetching 143.82 per dollar after an overnight drop of 0.8% and benchmark ten year yields fell by another 6 basis points to 0.570%, the lowest since early August.
China's central bank left its benchmark lending rates unchanged on Wednesday, as widely expected.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 0.7%, nabbing another all-time closing high, and the Nasdaq Composite also added 0.7% to the highest level since January. The S&P 500 gained 0.6%.
The rally was fuelled by an unexpectedly dovish tone from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last Wednesday on rate cut prospects next year, with the stock market having paid little attention to the pushback since from other Fed officials.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin on Tuesday welcomed the retreat in inflation but refrained from saying how that affects his outlook for policy next year. Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said there was no urgency to cut
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