The performance of Asian stocks was mixed at the beginning of today's trading after US indices suffered, while Bitcoin witnessed fluctuations due to the confusion resulting from a fake post on the social media platform X.
Benchmark indices rose in Japan, with the Nikkei 225 stock index extending gains after reaching its highest levels in more than three decades, and investor optimism about the country comes amid its long battle with deflation.
Stocks fell in Australia and South Korea, while futures in Hong Kong leaned lower. Rei Nishihara, senior Japanese equity analyst at JP Morgan, wrote in a note: As market expectations for an early Fed rate cut declined after the start of the new year, Japanese stocks remained steady on expectations that the yen's depreciation against the dollar would support corporate profits.
US stock futures were little changed, after commodities and financial stocks pushed the S&P 500 index lower on Tuesday. Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds and the dollar stabilized in Asian trading. There was little change in the price of the yen, which started the year weakly.
Bitcoin rebounded after the decline caused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission's statement that it had not yet granted approval for Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds. The authority said that the post that caused a state of conflict and was published minutes ago on the regulatory authority’s official X account was not correct.
US inflation report
Investors will be focused on the headline inflation report from the US later this week for signals on the timing of a rate cut by the Fed.
Global markets are now threatened with the emergence of a scenario opposite to their expectations due to the growing discrepancy between their large estimates of reducing US interest rates against flexible economic fundamentals, which reduces the need to implement such monetary easing, according to Max Ketner of HSBC Holdings, who expects The Fed will begin its monetary easing cycle in June, far from market expectations of May or even March.
Returning to Asia, data on Wednesday showed that Japanese workers' wage growth slowed sharply in November. This is an unwelcome development on the part of the Bank of Japan in the context of its quest to obtain indicators showing a positive relationship between wage increases and price increases as a prerequisite for normalizing monetary policy.
Inflation, trade and credit data in China are also among the data expected in the following days to measure the extent of the recovery of the second largest economy in the world.
On the other hand, oil prices stabilized after rising more than 2% yesterday, Tuesday, thanks to indicators of continued shrinkage in US inventories, while official forecasts indicated the possibility of a limited global deficit emerging this year.
