Asian shares scale fresh 7-month high as Hong Kong trade resumes By Reuters

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian equities rose to a fresh seven-month high on Thursday, with Hong Kong shares playing catch-up to other markets’ gains as trade resumed after its three-day Lunar New Holiday.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.56% to 555.81. Hong Kong’s was 1.6% higher.

was, however, 0.25% lower.

Trading was thin on Thursday with Australia closed for a holiday and certain parts of Asia, including China, still away for the Lunar New Year.

Traders betting that the U.S. Federal will soon tone down its aggressive rate hike policy got a lift after the Bank of Canada on Wednesday became the first major central bank to say it would likely hold off on further increases for now.

After a series of super-sized rate hikes last year, the U.S. central bank is now largely expected to raise rates by a smaller 25 basis points next week on signs that inflation is cooling.

“The US GDP release today will be of key interest to gauge whether the market expectations shifting in favour of a soft landing rather than a recession can continue to hold,” Saxo strategists said in a note to clients.

The prospect of a less aggressive pace in monetary tightening has stoked expectations of a so-called soft landing – a scenario in which inflation eases against a backdrop of weakening but resilient economic growth.

But weak corporate earnings so far have revived worries over the economic impact of the Fed’s restrictive policy and the ended lower overnight.

Boeing (NYSE:) Co on Wednesday reported a wider loss for 2022 on weakness in its defense unit as it warned of further supply chain issues, with the U.S. planemaker missing Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings per share in the final quarter of the year.

Investor attention will also be on the Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings due next week, with traders looking for clues as to when the central banks are likely to turn dovish.

In the currency market, the , which measures the U.S. currency against six major rivals, was at 101.57, not far off the eight-month low of 101.51 it touched last week.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.32% to 129.19 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2407, up 0.06% on the day.

The yield on was down 1.7 basis points at 3.445%, while the…