Stock price information displayed in the lobby of the Euronext NV stock exchange in Paris, France, on Wednesday, 14 December 2022. (Photo: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg) 
Contracts for the Wall Street benchmark rose 0.5% while those for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rallied 0.9% after chipmaker Nvidia issued a bullish outlook and surged more than 9% in extended trading.
Key stock indexes in Hong Kong, mainland China and South Korea all rose, along with European futures, while Australian shares fell. There was no trading of equities in Tokyo or Treasuries in Asian hours due to a holiday in Japan.
The greenback weakened against all of its G10 currency counterparts after a rally on Wednesday. The Australian dollar showed the biggest gains on stronger-than-expected business investment data and dip-buying by exporters.
Australian bond yields edged higher while those for New Zealand’s 2-year and 10-year debt rose more than 10 basis points.
The 10-year US Treasury benchmark fell four basis points on Wednesday, although the decline moderated after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve.
The minutes showed officials expect further interest rate increases to tame inflation. They also revealed that “a few” officials were open to a 50 basis-point hike in the central bank’s meeting earlier this month when it raised interest rates 25 basis points.
Investors increased expectations for the peak to the Fed’s interest rate cycle. Market pricing now implies expectations for a peak of nearly 5.4% in July. A month ago, investors had priced in a peak of 4.9% in June. An index of the dollar was flat after strengthening on Wednesday.
“One of our big concerns coming into this year was the market was anticipating an event that wasn’t likely to occur, that being a dovish Fed pivot,” Danielle Poli, co-portfolio manager of the diversified income fund for Oaktree Capital Management, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “The market has woken back up a little bit in these last two weeks.”
Jobless claims data due on Thursday in the US will help shine a light on the strength of the labor market, which has remained stubbornly robust through the rate-hiking cycle. Eurozone inflation data due today will also help investors outline the health of the European economy.
Elsewhere in markets, South Korea’s Kospi rose more than 1% and the won advanced after the central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged with its first pause in rate increases in a year.
Oil edged higher – after the longest run of losses this year – as the dollar fell and traders took stock of a mixed demand outlook of tightening US monetary policy and China’s reopening. BM/DM