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Nikkei 225 Heads Toward Decade High As Asian Shares Mostly Gain

Published 12/10/2017, 03:26 pm
Updated 12/10/2017, 03:29 pm
© Reuters.  Asian markets mostly higher
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Investing.com - Asian markets mostly rose on Thursday as invstors digested the Fed minutes and regional data with Japan continuing a winning streak.

Japan's Nikkei 225 headed for its highest close inb nearly a decade and closer to the 21,000 mark, up 0.48% at the break. Shares of Kobe Steel edged up 0.8% following huge sell offs in the previous two sessions after the company admitted to falsifying data to meet customer requirements.

Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.21%. Greater China saw the Shanghai Composite fell 0.17% and the Hang Seng index gained 0.216%. Japan reported PPI figures for September rose 0.2% as expected on month. Elsewhere, Australia reported that home loans in August gained 1.0%, compared to a 0.5% gain seen.

Earlier, Federal Reserve policymakers had a prolonged debate about the prospects of a pickup in inflation and slowing the path of future interest rate rises if it did not, according to the minutes of the U.S. central bank's last policy meeting on Sept. 19-20 released on Wednesday.

The readout of the meeting, at which the Fed announced it would begin this month to reduce its large bond portfolio mostly amassed following the financial crisis and unanimously voted to hold rates steady, also showed that officials remained mostly sanguine about the economic impact of recent hurricanes.

"Many participants expressed concern that the low inflation readings this year might reflect... the influence of developments that could prove more persistent, and it was noted that some patience in removing policy accommodation while assessing trends in inflation was warranted," the Fed said in the minutes.

As such several said that they would focus on incoming inflation data over the next few months when deciding on future interest rate moves. Nevertheless, many policymakers still felt that another rate increase this year "was likely to be warranted," the Fed said.

Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve released somewhat dovish minutes from its September meeting ahead of key earnings from Financials.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 22,871.68. The S&P 500 closed 0.18% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6603.55.25, up 0.25%.

Ahead of a duo of earnings from major Wall Street banks due Thursday, financials were the main laggards of session threatening to weigh on the broader market.

Both JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) (NYSE:BAC) are slated to release earnings on Thursday before US markets open.

The Fed’s September minutes, however, lifted sentiment on US stocks after the minutes revealed that Fed members were split over the outlook of inflation, as some members called on the Fed to halt further rate increases until the trend of slowing inflation subsided.

“… many participants expressed concern that the low inflation readings this year might reflect not only transitory factors, but also the influence of developments that could prove more persistent,” the Fed said in the minutes.

Investor expectations for a December rate hike remained elevated, however, as the Fed minutes showed members agreed that a gradual approach to increasing rates will be warranted.

On the corporate earnings front, both BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) (NYSE:BLK) and Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) (NYSE:DAL) reported earnings that beat Wall Street estimates on both the top and bottom line.

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