(Bloomberg) – Asian stocks were mixed as European stock futures rose and U.S. contracts extended their advance on Thursday, amid signs that a four-day streak of declines for the S&P 500 is ready for a rollback.
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Contracts for Wall Street’s benchmark rose 0.4% while those for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 0.8% after chipmaker Nvidia Corp. issued a bullish outlook and jumped more than 9% in extended trade.
Major stock indices in Hong Kong and mainland China fluctuated. South Korean stocks rose and Australian stocks fell. There was no trading of stocks in Tokyo or treasuries during Asian hours due to a public holiday in Japan.
The greenback weakened against all of its Group of 10 peers after rallying on Wednesday. The Australian dollar posted the biggest gains on stronger than expected business investment data and lower buying by exporters.
Australian bond yields rose slightly while New Zealand 2- and 10-year debt yields rose more than 10 basis points.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury fell four basis points on Wednesday, although the decline moderated after the release of Federal Reserve minutes.
Minutes showed officials expected further interest rate hikes to bring inflation under control. They also revealed that “a few” officials were open to a 50 basis point hike at the central bank’s meeting earlier this month when it raised interest rates by 25 basis points.
Investors raised their expectations for the peak of the Fed interest rate cycle. Market prices now imply expectations for a peak of nearly 5.4% in July. A month ago, investors had forecast a peak of 4.9% in June. A dollar index fell slightly after strengthening on Wednesday.
“One of our big concerns heading into this year was that the market was pricing in an event that probably wouldn’t happen, which is a dovish pivot from the Fed,” Danielle Poli, co-manager portfolio manager of the diversified income fund for Oaktree Capital Management, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “The market has woken up a bit in the last couple of weeks.”
Unemployment claims data due Thursday in the United States will help shed light on the strength of the labor market, which has remained stubbornly robust throughout the rate hike cycle. Eurozone inflation data due today will also help investors describe the health of the European economy.
Elsewhere in the markets, South Korea’s Kospi rose more than 1% and the won rose after the central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged with its first pause in rate hikes in a year.
Oil edged higher – after the longest streak of losses this year – as the dollar fell and traders took stock of a mixed demand outlook for tightening US monetary policy and reopening China.
Key events this week:
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Eurozone CPI, Thursday
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US GDP, first jobless claims, Thursday
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Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks on Thursday
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BOJ Governor-appointe Kazuo Ueda appears before Japan’s lower house on Friday
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US PCE Deflator, Personal Spending, New Home Sales, University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment, Friday
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passes one-year milestone on Friday
Some of the major movements in the markets:
Shares
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S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% at 2:53 p.m. Tokyo time. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%
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Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.8%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.1%
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2%
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The Shanghai Composite fell 0.3%
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Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.4%
Currencies
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The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
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The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0621
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The Japanese yen was little changed at 134.82 per dollar
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The offshore yuan rose 0.2% to 6.8907 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
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Bitcoin rose 2.4% to $24,375
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Ether rose 2.7% to $1,663.5
Obligations
Goods
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West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $74.26 a barrel
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Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,829.31 an ounce
This story was produced with assistance from Bloomberg Automation.
–With the help of Akshay Chinchalkar.
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