Foreign exchange traders monitor screens in Tokyo, Japan. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/CARL COURT
Chinese blue chips lost 0.8%, however, weighed by financials and capping broader gains in the region. Growth stocks led those gains as Treasury yields declined after a weaker-than-expected US business activity reading. A pullback in commodity prices, particularly oil, also undermined the thesis for too-hot inflation.
“It’s still a market trying to work out where inflation is going to go, and what that might mean for Fed policy somewhere down the line,” said Kyle Rodda, a market analyst at IG in Melbourne. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes held Thursday’s more than four basis-point fall to hover around 1.632% in Asia.
In the foreign exchange market, the dollar was languishing near multi-month lows after its steepest slide in about two weeks on Thursday as bets of early US rate hikes pared back.