(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks traded within tight ranges early Wednesday, mirroring similar moves on Wall Street amid a lack of fresh catalysts, while a rebound in cryptocurrencies lost steam.
MSCI Inc.’s gauge of regional shares was up 0.1% as tech-heavy benchmarks in South Korea and Taiwan advanced. Japanese indexes were mixed. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes edged higher after the US benchmark capped its sixth advance in seven trading sessions on Tuesday. Bitcoin fluctuated after surging back above $91,000 in the previous session, suggesting that the crypto market remains on shaky ground.
The mixed backdrop highlighted the fragile sentiment heading into the year-end, with investors juggling tight equity moves and renewed volatility in cryptocurrencies as they wait for this month’s rate decisions by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. With only a handful of data releases left before Fed officials meet next week, equity traders are treading carefully.
“Asian markets are trading with a cautiously positive tone today, drawing some momentum from Wall Street, but the sky certainly isn’t clear enough for a broad-based rally,” said Hebe Chen, an analyst at Vantage Markets in Melbourne. “The upcoming, decision-shaping US PCE print and a heavy slate of central bank meetings are keeping traders on edge.”
The volatile moves in the crypto market have also kept broader appetite for risk assets in check. Bitcoin jumped nearly 6% on Tuesday, recovering from a bruising selloff in the previous session that caught Wall Street off guard and erased nearly $1 billion in fresh leveraged bets.
The US is due to release ADP’s report on private sector employment as well as the import price index and industrial production for September on Wednesday. The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of consumer sentiment in December will be released on Friday.
As traders awaited the last few economic reports before next week’s Fed decision, President Donald Trump said he plans to announce his selection to lead the central bank in early 2026. Trump has pressured the Fed for months to lower interest rates, and naming a successor to Jerome Powell — whose term as Chair expires in May — would give the president his biggest chance yet to reshape the institution.
After cutting interest rates by more than a percentage point, Fed officials are now wondering where to stop – and finding there’s more disagreement than ever.
In the past year or so, prescriptions for where rates should end up have diverged by the most since at least 2012, when US central bankers started publishing their estimates. That’s feeding into an unusually public split over whether to deliver another cut next week, and what comes after that.
“Nothing is going to change our view that the Fed eases next week, but it is looking more like a hawkish cut,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “We can see at least three dissents next week.”
Corporate News
Medical supply company Medline Inc. is set to begin formal marketing for its initial public offering as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, in what’s expected to be the biggest US listing this year. Taiwanese prosecutors charged Tokyo Electron Ltd. for failing to prevent staff from allegedly stealing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. trade secrets, escalating a dispute involving two Asian linchpins of a chip industry increasingly vital to national and economic security. Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit raced to get the latest version of its artificial intelligence chip to market, renewing efforts to sell hardware capable of rivaling products from Nvidia Corp. and Google. Comcast Corp. is looking to merge its NBCUniversal division with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Marvell Technology Inc. announced plans to acquire startup Celestial AI for at least $3.25 billion, part of a push to capture more of the runaway spending on artificial intelligence computing. Tesla Inc.’s China factory shipments rose for only the third time this year amid a broader global downturn in sales for the Elon Musk-run company. UltraGreen.ai is set to begin trading Wednesday morning in Singapore’s biggest initial public offering since 2017 excluding real estate investment trusts. CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. raised its fiscal year 2026 guidance, signaling resilient demand for the company’s expanding portfolio of artificial intelligence-enabled cybersecurity products. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% as of 10:51 a.m. Tokyo time Nikkei 225 futures (OSE) rose 0.8% Japan’s Topix fell 0.4% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6% The Shanghai Composite fell 0.1% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.2% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1637 The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 155.65 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0628 per dollar The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to $0.6573 Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $92,280.57 Ether rose 0.8% to $3,022.51 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.07% Japan’s 10-year yield advanced 1.5 basis points to 1.870% Australia’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.60% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $58.56 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.3% to $4,219 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Winnie Hsu.
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