Asia stocks slightly up

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SYDNEY- Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday, wary in case the Federal Reserve flags a slower path of rate cuts later in the day, while the yen plumbed four-month lows on expectations that policy in Japan will be accommodative for a while longer.

European markets are set to open lower, with EUROSTOXX 50 futures down 0.4 percent and FTSE futures 0.1 percent lower. Both US futures were off 0.1 percent .

Tokyo’s Nikkei is closed for a holiday in Japan, but the yen’s weakness lifted Nikkei futures 0.4 percent higher, a day after the Bank of Japan ended years of negative interest rates in a well-telegraphed move.

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MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent .

Taiwanese shares fell 0.6 percent while South Korean shares jumped 1.2 percent , driven by a 5.6 percent surge in Samsung Electronics.

Nvidia said it was qualifying the South Korean chipmaker’s high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.

Chinese shares also rose slightly. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5 percent , while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index crept 0.2 percent higher.

China’s central bank left its benchmark lending rates unchanged on Wednesday, as widely expected.

The dollar gained 0.4 percent to 151.51 yen, a fresh four-month high, and moved closer to the 152 level that prompted Japanese authorities to intervene to stem the currency’s slide in late 2022. It slumped about 1.1 percent overnight.

While Japan’s historic shift away from negative interest rates and massive stimulus ushered in a new era of economic policy for the nation, analysts expect the BOJ’s monetary normalization to proceed at a glacial pace. That has meant an extended lifespan for the popular carry trades where investors borrow yen to buy higher yielding currencies.

“On currencies, it is clear that the BOJ tightening has done nothing to shake a belief in carry,” said Alan Ruskin, global head of G10 FX strategy at Deutsche Bank.

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