Asian shares gain on mixed data sets with regional easy policies eyed

Investing.com - Shares in Tokyo gained in Asia on Wednesday with Sydney also up a tick on mixed data as investors continued to eye the prospect of easy monetary policies regionally.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.50% and the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.63%. In greater China the Hang Seng index also rose, up 0.18%, at the break, and the Shanghai Composite eased slightly, down 0.15%.

In Australia, the first quarter wage price index rose 0.5%, weaker than the 0.6% gain seen quarter-on-quarter and the year-on-year pace dropped to a gain of 2.3%, a new record low.

AUD/USD traded at 0.7991, up 0.20%, on the data and as investors continue to assess the shakeout from tight federal budget spending proposals issued on May 12 that appear out of synch with a slowing economy and may lead the central bank to cut rates further from a record low 2%.

Earlier in Japan, data showed April bank lending rose 2.7%, slightly above the 2.7% expected and that the preliminary current account for March reached a surplus of ¥2.795 trillion yen, above the ¥2.060 trillion expected.

In bank lending, the BoJ expects a moderate uptrend in capital investment, backed by rising corporate profits.

USD/JPY traded at 119.78, down 0.07%, after the data

In China, April industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment data are due at 1330 local time (0530 GMT). Fixed asset investment is seen up 13.5%, industrial production gained 6.0% and retail sales are expected to gave risen 10.5% - all year-on-year.

Overnight, U.S. stocks bounced off lows early in Tuesday's session as Treasuries staged a dramatic rebound, but still closed broadly lower on a volatile day of trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 100 points on Tuesday morning, before rallying in the afternoon session to end the day at 18,068.23, down 36.94 or 0.20%. Stocks on the Dow plunged shortly after U.S. markets opened when U.S. 10-Year Treasuries reached a six-month high at 2.36%, but rebounded as yields leveled off at 2.26%. The Dow is still down roughly 1% since reaching a record-high of 18,288.63 on March 2.

The NASDAQ Composite index and the S&P 500 Composite index and the S&P Composite index each fell by more than 0.25% during a bearish session. The NASDAQ dipped by 17.38 or 0.35% to 4,976.19, while the S&P 500 fell 6.21 or 0.29% to 2,099.12, as both hovered near all-time closing records.

a renewed selloff in European government bond and stock markets continued to weigh on the greenback and as trading volumes were thin with no major U.S. data to be released.

The single currency was boosted as a fresh selloff in global bond markets undermined greenback strength. German 10-year bund yields jumped, narrowing the gap with their U.S. counterparts.

German bund yields act as benchmarks for European financial markets and higher yields push the euro higher against the dollar. Yields rise as prices fall.

Earlier Tuesday, Greece repaid a €770 million loan installment to the International Monetary Fund, easing concerns that it was on the verge of default although fears over the country’s future in the euro area persisted.

Athens is scrambling to reach an agreement with its international creditors on a package of economic reforms in order to access fresh bailout funds and avert a liquidity crunch.