Investors shift their focus towards fresh data out of the US
US stocks finished marginally higher overnight to snap a four-day losing streak as investors shrugged off a surprise move from the Bank of Japan that pushed bond yields up globally. The Japanese central bank moved to widen its cap on the 10-year Japanese government bond yield, thus adding to pressure from other hawkish central banks. Still, the Dow Jones rose 0.28%, the S&P 500 gained 0.10%, while the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.01%.
Following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street, Asian equities were mixed-to-higher on Wednesday. Australian shares and Hong Kong equity futures advanced while Japanese shares fell. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo finished nearly 0.7% lower after yesterday’s gains. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were little changed after rallying in the previous session. Now, investors shift their focus towards fresh data out of the US, including existing home sales for November and the Conference Board consumer confidence index.
In currencies, the dollar saw a mild bounce on Wednesday as traders took a pause after yesterday’s sell-off. The USD index regained the 104.00 figure but is yet to confirm its recovery as the upside bias looks too shallow and indecisive. Further improvement in risk sentiment in the global financial markets could cap the dollar’s recovery attempts, with downside risks persisting while below at least the 109.00-110.00 zone.
In other markets, the price of bitcoin rallied on Tuesday to add nearly 3% on the day following a weak start to the week. The BTCUSD pair jumped late-November lows around $16,300 towards the $17,000 handle as buying pressure reemerged across the crypto space. However, the cion struggled to extend the ascent as the upside momentum has waned since then. On Wednesday, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization holds steady below $17,000, losing less than 0.5% on the day.
