There is some evidence over the last 24 hours of this playing out – Hong Kong stocks finally posted a down day on Tuesday, and broad Asian and emerging market equity indexes essentially ended the day flat.
That may be nothing more than rational profit-taking and position-trimming. The Hang Seng had been on its longest daily winning streak since 2018, and earlier on Tuesday the MSCI Asia ex-Japan and Emerging Market indexes had hit new 15-month and two-year highs, respectively.
Japanese markets, meanwhile, are once again dancing to their own tune with the yen back on the slide after last week’s suspected intervention, which has helped lift the Nikkei to its highest since April 15 and close to the 39,000 point mark.
There doesn’t appear to be any obvious local catalyst on Wednesday to give markets much impetus one way or the other, with only unemployment and trade figures from the Philippines and trade data from Taiwan on the calendar.
The yen and Indonesian rupiah could get a steer from their respective central bank chiefs – Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda speaks at a seminar hosted by Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper, and Bank Indonesia governor Perry Warjiyo addresses the current economic situation in a briefing with the press.
