Investing.com - Asian-Pacific markets are set for a slight rise at the start of Wednesday's trading. However, Wall Street witnessed a dip in share prices as tech companies, led by Nvidia, took a downturn and U.S. bond yields experienced a significant surge. The increase in yields came on the heels of robust retail sales data, which pointed to strong consumer demand and the potential need for further interest rate hikes.
ASX 200 Futures were slightly up by 12 points or 0.8% around 8:55am AEDT, trimming previous gains in line with the afternoon weakness in New York. KOSPI 200 Futures and Nikkei 225 Futures also suggested a positive market opening.
The Australian real estate company, Rea Group Ltd (ASX:REA), is expected to see increased trading activity following activist investor Starboard Value LP's urge for News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (ASX:NWS) to offload its 61% stake in the firm.
Wells Fargo 's (NYSE:WFC) economic team emphasized that real income is a crucial driver of spending, and the ongoing tightness in the labor market could continue to fuel consumption in the near term. Despite the potential pressure on inflation and the Federal Reserve due to enduring consumer resilience, the team believes the balance of risks is becoming more even concerning the Fed's actions. They speculate another rate hike might happen before the year ends, but their primary expectation is that the last rate hike of the tightening cycle occurred in July.
In the currency world, the Australian Dollar saw a 0.1% rise, while the Vietnamese Dong, Indonesian Rupiah, Thai Baht and Korean Won remained flat. The US Dollar Index was also little changed at 106.2. The performance of these currencies could be influenced by upcoming Chinese data, including the third-quarter GDP.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year note jumped 13 basis points to 4.839% in New York, slightly below its overnight peak. The 2-year was at 5.214%, and the 30-year was at 4.93%.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) took a hit after the U.S. government restricted the sale of chips designed specifically for the Chinese market by the computer chip manufacturer. The U.S. also curbed exports to two Chinese artificial intelligence chip firms.
Today's agenda includes a speech from Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, the MI leading index for September alongside a series of overseas data releases. These include China's third-quarter GDP, September retail sales and industrial production, UK's September CPI, Eurozone's final CPI for September, as well as U.S. housing starts and building permits.