Asian shares and Wall Street futures nudged higher on Wednesday amid hopes the worst of the coronavirus in China may have passed, although prevailing uncertainty about the outbreak has kept investors wary.
The yuan held gains in offshore trade and safe-havens such as Treasuries, the yen and the Swiss franc were marginally weaker in a sign of slowly improving sentiment. Concerns that the virus will slow factory activity and consumer spending in the world's second-largest economy have roiled global stocks and commodities, and many of these markets are still trying to regain their footing.
U.S. stock futures rose 0.12per cent in Asia on Wednesday. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched to their second consecutive closing high on Tuesday.Treasury prices declined on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy is resilient. China's foremost medical adviser on the outbreak, Zhong Nanshan, told Reuters numbers of new cases were falling in some provinces and forecast the epidemic would peak this month, although investors remained skeptical.