Asian stocks wobble

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, Apr 20 (Reuters): Most Asian share markets advanced on Wednesday, following overnight gains on Wall Street, but trading was choppy as investors grappled with high US yields and China's cautious economic policy response to pandemic lockdowns.
In a sign of the strange mood, the Japanese yen gained on the dollar, having fallen nearly every session in the past two weeks and repeatedly setting fresh 20-year lows, while spot gold fell 0.5 per cent to its lowest in a week dragged down by higher yields.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent, its first positive session in a week supported by gains in Hong Kong, which added 0.8 per cent, and Australia, which was closing in on a record high, led by a 25 per cent leap in Ramsay Health Care following a takeover bid from private equity giant KKR.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.9 per cent, like other markets in the region tracking gains Wall Street where the three main benchmarks had their best days in over a month, helped by several strong earnings results. The Nasdaq closed up 2.2 per cent.
This looked to be it for the share rally however, as Nasdaq futures dropped nearly 1 per cent in Asia trade, dragged by a plunge in Netflix shares after market when the company reported its first fall in subscriptions for a decade.
S&P500 futures fell 0.4 per cent but EUROSTOXX 50 futures rose 0.2 per cent, and FTSE futures gained 0.15 per cent.
China bucked the regional trend with its blue chips shedding 0.83 per cent after the central bank kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged, despite frequent government pledges to support a slowing economy hit by the worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years.
That decision in contrast helped the Chinese yuan recover after hitting its lowest since October in early trade.
"Investors were looking for stimulus from China but the PBOC didn't deliver today," said Carlos Casanova. "Markets inevitably are going to interpret that in a negative way with the lockdowns extending into April and beyond, meaning the worst months for economic data are ahead of us."