Asia-Pacific markets mixed after Wall Street sets more records, eyes on Fed minutes

Asian equity markets mostly rose on Wednesday, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at new record levels.

Japan (NKY:IND) -0.85%. Japan’s trade deficit widens on weak yen, exports rose less than expected in April.

The Reuters Tankan sentiment index for manufacturers in Japan stood at +9 in May 2024, unchanged from April.

Japan’s core machinery orders, which exclude those for ships and electric power companies, rose 2.9% month-on-month to 913 billion yen in March 2024.

China (SHCOMP) +0.09%. The offshore yuan weakened past 7.24 per dollar, after stabilizing in the previous session, as the People’s Bank of China set the official guidance rate at 7.1077 per dollar, the weakest level since February 26.

Hong Kong (HSI) +0.11%.

India (SENSEX) +0.16%.

Australia (AS51) -0.05%.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept its official cash rate steady at 5.5% during its May 2024 policy meeting.

In the U.S., on Tuesday, all three major indexes ended higher as investors assessed a series of earnings reports from retailers and looked ahead to Nvidia’s results due tomorrow, while digesting the latest comments from Federal Reserve officials.

U.S. stock futures held steady on Wednesday as investors look ahead to Nvidia’s highly-anticipated earnings report: Dow -0.03%; S&P 500 -0.01%; Nasdaq +0.04%.

Investors now look ahead to the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes to better guide the US rates outlook.

Currencies: (JPY:USD), (CNY:USD), (AUD:USD), (INR:USD), (HKD:USD), (NZD:USD).

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