Asia stocks wobble as tech drags, yen gains in volatile trade
Business
Taiwan's tech-heavy stock benchmark TWII sagged 1.5% and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9%
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stock markets bounced between gains and losses on Thursday, while the yen and US bonds attempted to rebound, as global investors struggled to find their footing in a wild week for markets.
Japan's Nikkei share average swung from early losses of as much as 2.5% and gains of 0.8% before trading 0.6% lower as of 0445 GMT. That left the index down 2.8% for the week, following Monday's 12.4% plunge, despite the ensuing two-day rebound.
Tech shares were notable underperformers on the Nikkei, following a 1.1% overnight slide for Wall Street's Nasdaq Composite.
Taiwan's tech-heavy stock benchmark TWII sagged 1.5% and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9%.
However, gains for Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which reversed earlier losses to rise 0.7%, and for mainland blue chips helped to keep declines for MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares to 0.3%.
Nasdaq futures were volatile, last trading flat after swinging between gains and losses.
Pan-European STOXX 50 futures sagged 1.1%.
"Today's Asia session could be important, as many had bought the dip with the hope that we see real follow-through buying and the upside momentum building," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
"It's clear that we have not been given all clear just yet."
The yen generally benefits when market sentiment sours, and was last up about 0.5% at 145.98 per dollar in a volatile session that saw it up as much as 0.86% at one point but also down 0.14%.
The Swiss franc, another traditional haven, added 0.3% to 0/8592 per dollar.
The dollar-yen pair also tends to be sensitive to moves in long-term US Treasury yields, which retraced about half of their overnight jump to 3.977% and last stood at 3.91% in Asian hours.
The dollar index , which measures the currency against the yen, franc, euro and three other major peers, was down 0.08% at 103.03, while the euro gained by the same margin to $1.0931.
Currencies, and the yen in particular, have been upended by a shift last week toward bets for steady interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan and aggressive cuts by the Federal Reserve, which helped send the dollar as low as 141.675 yen on Monday for the first time since the start of this year.
The move snowballed as some investors unwound yen carry trades, with a ripple effect on Japanese stocks. While much of that has run its course, traders are still struggling to find an equilibrium level.
"Positioning is much cleaner across the board," said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG.
"I know of very few funds, if any, that would allow their traders to hold positions given the magnitude of the moves we saw earlier in the week, particularly in the long 'Japan Trade,' i.e. long Nikkei and short JPY."
BOJ officials have sent conflicting signals since springing a surprise rate rise a week ago. Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida on Wednesday played down the chance of another near-term hike, but a summary of the meeting released earlier Thursday revealed a hawkish slant among the board.
Meanwhile, weekly US jobless claims data due later in the day could prove market moving following soft monthly payrolls figures on Friday that exacerbated fears of a US economic downturn.
Traders are currently pricing in 111 basis points of cuts to the Fed funds rate over the remaining three meetings this year, which many analysts see as overdone.
"During recent volatility episodes going back to the banking crisis in March 2023, the promise or pricing of aggressive Fed rate cuts has proven to be as effective as actual rate cuts, via the loosening in financial conditions," said IG's Sycamore.
"That's enabled the Fed to save its rate cut bullets."
Elsewhere, leading cryptocurrency bitcoin gained more than 3% to $56,877.
Crude oil continued to rise following data the previous day that showed a bigger-than-expected draw in US crude stockpiles.
Brent crude futures added 0.1% to $78.42 a barrel, following Wednesday's 2.4% jump. US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.3% to $75.45, building on a 2.8% rally from overnight.
