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(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday after a rally on Wall Street that was fueled by strength in US consumer confidence and home sales. The yen strengthened after verbal intervention in Tokyo and the Australian dollar slumped on soft inflation data. (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday after a rally on Wall Street that was fueled by strength in US consumer confidence and home sales. The yen strengthened after verbal intervention in Tokyo and the Australian dollar slumped on soft inflation data. Stocks advanced in Japan and Australia, but fell in Hong Kong and mainland China. US stock futures also declined following a late-breaking Wall Street Journal report that the Biden administration was considering new curbs on exports of artificial intelligence chips to China set off a retreat in postmarket trading for some US tech stocks. Tech megacaps had earlier led the rebound in US equities. Tesla Inc. rallied after a 6% plunge, Snowflake Inc. jumped on an artificial intelligence-related partnership with Nvidia Corp. and Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms Inc. gained as Citigroup Inc. lifted its target. Alphabet Inc. underperformed with an analyst saying Google’s owner was moving “too fast” in AI. Yet the data showing economic resilience also underscored the likelihood that the Federal Reserve has further to go in tightening monetary policy. Treasuries held losses Wednesday after yields went higher Tuesday at the same time as the Nasdaq 100 jumped almost 2%. The offshore yuan was little changed after the People’s Bank of China set its daily reference rate for the managed currency in line with estimates. The yen strengthened away from the closely-watched 145 level versus the dollar after Japan’s top currency official said authorities will respond should there be excessive foreign exchange moves. Later Wednesday, the focus will turn back to a gathering in Portugal and a panel discussion featuring the chiefs of the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England. For the first time since early 2022, the US consumer confidence report showed that a larger percentage of people expected higher stock prices relative to lower equity values, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Meanwhile, new-home sales advanced to the fastest pace in over a year. “Stocks are bouncing back after some strong US economic data gave a boost to consumer discretionary stocks and as investors piled back into AI trades,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “The strong consumer confidence report will likely suggest expectations are not for the labor market to deteriorate quickly, which should confirm expectations that a recession will not happen this year, but most likely next.” In the run-up to the results of the Fed’s stress test, a nearly $3 billion exchange-traded fund tracking regional lenders was up over 1.5%. Analysts largely expect banks to sail through the tests even as regulators explore more stringent requirements in the aftermath of a few collapses in the financial industry. Elsewhere oil edged higher as investors weighed the outlook for monetary policy and a mixed industry report on US crude stockpiles. Gold was little changed. WATCH: Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of Asia Pacific equity research at BNP Paribas, shares his views on stocks in South Korea, Taiwan and China.Source: Bloomberg Key events this week: US wholesale inventories, goods trade balance, Wednesday Fed to unveil results of annual banking industry stress test, Wednesday Policy panel with ECB’s Christine Lagarde, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, BOJ’s Kazuo Ueda and BOE’s Andrew Bailey, Wednesday Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic speaks, Thursday China manufacturing PMI, non-manufacturing PMI, balance of payments, Friday US personal income and spending, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks S&P 500 futures fell 0.2% as of 10:33 a.m. Tokyo time. The S&P 500 rose 1.15% Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.4%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.75% Japan’s Topix rose 0.8% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3% The Shanghai Composite fell 0.3% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.0% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.3% Currencies The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% The euro was little changed at $1.0951 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 143.85 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2263 per dollar The Australian dollar fell 0.8% to $0.6635 Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $30,561.99 Ether fell 1.1% to $1,871.09 Bonds The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 3.76% Japan’s 10-year yield advanced 1.5 basis points to 0.385% Australia’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 3.89% Commodities West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $67.81 a barrel Spot gold was little changed This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation. --With assistance from Rita Nazareth, Yumi Teso and Yoshiaki Nohara. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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