Stocks climb

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SINGAPORE- Asian stocks rose on Wednesday as traders awaited policy cues from Beijing during its week-long annual session of parliament after a prior lack of stimulus measures disappointed some investors, while gold and bitcoin eased after touching record peaks.

Traders were also hesitant to place major bets ahead of congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell starting later on Wednesday that will be parsed to gauge if and when the US central bank is ready to start cutting interest rates.

Chinese stocks were mixed a day after Beijing set a widely expected 5 percent growth target for 2024 at a key parliament meeting that lacked major stimulus measures.

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The blue-chip CSI 300 Index was 0.08 percent lower while Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng spiked 2 percent higher, rebounding from Tuesday’s 2.5 percent dive.

“The 2024 (China) economic targets still show officials are unwilling to quickly reflate the economy given concerns about excessive debt and the weakness of the yuan,” said Mansoor Mohi-uddin, chief economist at the Bank of Singapore.

An economy-focused press conference at 0700 GMT on Wednesday, where representatives from People’s Bank of China and other regulators may respond to media inquiries, will be scrutinized by investors looking for more policy details.

The wait-and-see approach made for a lacklustre trading session in Asia, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan initially slipping before reversing course to trade 0.46 percent higher.

Wall Street’s three major indexes retreated more than 1 percent on Tuesday, with weakness in megacap growth companies such as Apple and the chip sector weighing most on the tech-heavy Nasdaq

E-mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.09 percent . European bourses are set for slightly higher open, with the Eurostoxx 50 futures up 0.10 percent , German DAX futures up 0.14 percent and FTSE futures up 0.05 percent .

A key event for investors in Britain will be the government’s budget, in which Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt will do his utmost to cut taxes while avoiding the ire of bond markets.

In the U.S., data on Tuesday showed a waning expansion of the services sector, and a steeper-than-expected drop in new factory orders, with the spotlight now firmly on payrolls data due later in the week. – Reuters

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