China stocks lead Asia lower, gold drifts after record peak
By Ankur Banerjee
SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Asian equities eased on Wednesday in cautious trading, with Chinese stocks slipping as the lack of big stimulus measures from Beijing disappointed some investors, while gold and bitcoin eased after hitting record highs.
Traders are hesitant to place major bets ahead of congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that will be parsed to gauge if the U.S. central bank is ready to start cutting rates.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.21% lower. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.20% as investors took some profit after the index hit record peaks this week.
Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday, a day after Beijing set a widely expected 5% growth target for 2024 at a parliament meeting that lacked major stimulus measures.
The blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.42% while Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng was 0.73% higher.
«The 2024 economic targets still show officials are unwilling to quickly reflate the economy given concerns about excessive debt and the weakness of the yuan,» said Mansoor Mohi-uddin, chief economist at the Bank of Singapore.
«But the report does signal policymakers are stepping up efforts to put a floor under China's growth and should thus support investor sentiment in 2024.»
Overnight, Wall Street's three major indexes retreated more than 1%, with weakness in megacap growth companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and the chip sector weighing most on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. [.N]
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 was up 0.01%.
Data on Tuesday showed a waning expansion of the U.S. services sector, and a steeper-than-expected drop in new factory orders, with the spotlight firmly on payrolls data later in the week.
Benchmark 10-year U.S.
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