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By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares held steady on Thursday ahead of a housing policy briefing in China that has raised expectations of support for the ailing property sector, while the dollar was near a 2.5-month high on the prospect of a presidency of Donald Trump. .
Global bonds rallied after a surprisingly large drop in British inflation and after the European Central Bank was expected to announce its first consecutive interest rate cut in 13 years.
Results at chipmaker TSMC will take center stage after equipment supplier ASML’s (AS:) soft outlook.
rose 0.2% in early trading and Australian shares rose 1% to hit a record high, led by the banking sector which had also performed strongly on Wall Street.
The US dollar was near its highest level in more than two months as forecast markets showed Republican Trump leading the US presidential race. U.S. futures fell after major U.S. indexes closed at or near record levels on Wednesday.
“It’s probably only in the last two or three days that the concept of a Trump victory will get the bid from the US dollar,” said Damien McColough, head of tariffs strategy at Westpac, which looks at Trump’s tariffs, tax and immigration policies is considered inflationary and negative. for bonds and positive for the dollar.
“There’s also the concept of a strong economy and less Fed rate cuts, so the two are merging,” he said. It is also believed that Trump and the Republicans are likely to take a softer approach to cryptocurrency regulation. has increased in recent sessions.
Bitcoin has risen 15% in a week to $67,615. Gold hovered at $2,677 an ounce, just below record levels.
Chinese markets rose modestly at opening, up 0.5% in early trading, while Hong Kong was 2% higher.
DYING PANTIES
Thursday and Friday’s global economic data are also likely to be market-moving. In Asia, the Australian dollar rebounded from a one-month low after data showed net employment exceeded expectations and pushed back interest rate cuts. [AUD/]
The dollar last rose 0.5% to $0.6697 and three-year Australian bond futures fell 8 ticks.
U.S. retail sales figures are expected later on Thursday, and China will release third-quarter gross domestic product figures on Friday. On Wednesday, British inflation slowed sharply to 1.7% annualized, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England could cut interest rates twice before Christmas.
The interest rate markets estimate an almost 90% chance of two rate cuts of 25 basis points before the end of the year. The news sent sterling down 0.6% to its lowest since August 20 and helped push down government and global bond yields.[GB/][GVD/EUR][US/]
The US ten-year yield in Asia remained stable at 4.03%, while the two-year yield remained at 3.95%. Sterling traded at $1.2993, close to its overnight low. [GBP/]
“My guess is that London will likely sell GBP aggressively… as they come in,” Spectra Markets president Brent Donnelly said in a note to clients, as traders digest the general slowdown in price pressure.
Elsewhere in currency trading, the euro was at $1.0862, near its lowest level since early August, while the yen traded at 149.40 per dollar.
In commodities trading, futures held steady at $74.57 a barrel after four sessions of losses after industry data showed an unexpected drop in inventories last week. [O/R]