Asian shares hovered near seven-month highs early on Wednesday as global investors paused for breath after the strong rally seen earlier this week, while oil approached the key $70 per barrel mark.
Asian Shares
- MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up less than 0.1 percent early in the Asian trading day.
- Australian shares were added 0.6 percent.
- Japan’s Nikkei stock index earned 0.2 percent.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 percent to 26,179.13 points.
- The S&P 500 was flat.
- Nasdaq Composite gained 0.25 percent to 7,848.69.
Currency
- The dollar was down a hair against the yen to 111.27.
- Euro was unchanged at $1.1202.
- The pound was flat at $1.3127
- The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down less than 0.1 percent at 97.289.
Commodities
- Gold was slightly lower, with spot gold trading at $1,291.31 per ounce.
- Brent crude up 0.45 percent at $69.68.
- U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was flat at $62.57 a barrel.
Bonds
- 10-year Treasury notes yielded 2.4706 percent, down from a U.S. close of 2.479 percent on Tuesday.
- The two-year yield, watched as a proxy for expectations of Fed rate rises, touched 2.2983 percent compared with a U.S. close of 2.308 percent.