Asian shares up on Wall St tech boost, $US gains on yen

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****** shares up on Wall St tech boost, $US gains on yen

****** shares bounced on Thursday, tracking a tech-driven rally on Wall Street, while the dollar held onto gains after US core inflation surprised slightly on the upside and dashed hopes of a large rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.

Investors are now awaiting a policy decision from the ********* Central Bank later in the day where a rate cut is almost a certainty, but the question ******** whether it would move again in both October and December.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rallied one per cent. The Nikkei jumped three per cent, helped by a weaker yen, which pulled back from its 2024 high of 140.71 per dollar.

Earlier in ****** trade, the yen had eased further to a low of 142.95, but was last flat at 142.40 per dollar, perhaps helped a little by hawkish comments from a senior Bank of Japan official who called for raising rates at least to one per cent.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures rose 1.2 per cent while FTSE futures gained 0.9 per cent. US stock futures were slightly lower.

Overnight, US data showed core consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.28 per cent in August, compared with forecasts for a rise of 0.2 per cent. It was enough of a steer for markets to almost abandon the chance of a half-point rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week, with probability for such a move at just 15 per cent.

“We wanted answers to help settle the 25bp vs 50bp Fed rate cut debate on Friday, but now it seems the market has made its own mind up,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, referring to the mixed August payrolls report last Friday.

“We are now comfortable with calling a 25bp cut for September, but also open-minded to the idea that a weak US payrolls report on 4 October would fully open up a 50bp cut in the November FOMC meeting.”

The disappointment over core inflation figures had pressured Wall Street but again tech stocks came to the rescue, with AI darling Nividia jumping eight per cent, helped by a media report that the US government is considering letting the company export advanced chips to Saudi Arabia.

Regional tech-heavy markets followed suit, with Taiwan adding 2.2 two per cent and South Korea gaining 1.1 per cent.

China’s sharemarkets were subdued, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.4 per cent higher.

In the foreign exchange market, the dollar traded near a four-week high versus the euro, which eased to $US1.1007, sticking close to Wednesday’s low of $US1.1002 – the weakest since August 16.

Short-dated US Treasuries sold off overnight. Two-year Treasury yields held at 3.3193 per cent, having risen four basis points overnight, while 10-year yields were at 3.3291 per cent.

That left the two-10-year yield curve flattening slightly and barely remaining positive at just one bp.

Oil bounced overnight on fears that Hurricane Francine could lead to lengthy production shutdowns in US.

Brent crude futures held at $US70.65 a barrel, after gaining two per cent overnight. It also found support at $US68.69, the lowest level in almost three years.

Gold traded at $US2,513.75 an ounce, just a touch below its record high of $US2,531.60.

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