Investing.com - Asian shares traded in a narrow range in Asia on Thursday with investors sitting on the sidelines ahead of Friday's U.S. nonfarm payroll data in the U.S.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.43% after the AIG construction index for June jumped to 53.2, marking a leap into expansion territory from 46.7 the previous month, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.23% and the Shanghai Composite eased 0.47%.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan central parity rate against the dollar at 6.6820 on Thursday, slightly stronger than Wednesday's 6.6857.
Overnight, U.S. stocks ticked up on Wednesday erasing sharp losses from earlier in the session, amid a continued global bond yield rout and further indications that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold due to ongoing Brexit concerns.
A modest rally on Wall Street accelerated on Wednesday afternoon, after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released the minutes from its last meeting on June 14-15. According to the minutes, the Committee felt it would be prudent to wait for the outcome of the historic Brexit referendum eight days later in order to "assess the consequences" of the vote on global financial markets. At the same time, most participants noted that a potential Brexit "could generate financial market turbulence," that could adversely impact U.S. domestic economic performance in the months ahead.
While Fed officials remained divided on the timing of their next rate hike, most participants judged that conditions could be appropriate for further tightening if economic growth picked up, the labor market showed improvement and inflation moved closer to its 2% goal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 78.00 or 0.44% to 17,918.62, while the S&P 500 Composite index added 11.18 or 0.54% to 2,099.73, as both indices erased some losses from the previous session's sell-off.
The NASDAQ Composite index, meanwhile, rose 36.26 or 0.75% to 2,099.73, amid a host of strong performances from leading biotech stocks.