Tag: 日元

Asian investors hoping for some relief from soaring U.S. bond yields and a ravaging dollar were deflated by Federal Reserve matron Jerome Powell's remarks on Tuesday, and will likely be on guard in Wednesday's trading. "Rather than giving us greater confidence, the recent data clearly suggests that realizing that confidence may take longer than expected," Powell said in Washington, a signal from the world of the Bubbles that inflation will not fall back to the central bank's 2% target as quickly as expected, and so interest rates will have to stay higher for a longer period of time. The "longer-term move higher" also seems to apply to the US dollar, bond yields and financial condition indices - a suboptimal grouping for Asian assets that are already feeling the heat.

Asian stocks were subdued as investors watched closely to see what interventions Japan might take to stem the yen's decline and waited for U.S. inflation data due later Wednesday to provide clues about future interest rate moves. The MSCI Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Index of Asia-Pacific equities, the broadest index of stocks outside Japan, rose 0.2% after U.S. stocks ended the day on a modestly higher note. Australian stocks rose 0.3% in the morning, while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.41%.