Asian Stock Market: Nikkei, ASX lead gainers, China shares dribble as S&P500 Futures, yields retreat

• Markets in Asia-Pacific region trade mixed amid cautious mood ahead of key central bankers’ speeches.
• ASX rallied on downbeat Aussie inflation, Nikkei braces for Japanese government’s intervention.
• China stocks remain pressured on AI curbs, industrial losses but economic optimism in the West prod equity sellers.
• Leaders of the ECB, BoJ and Fed are up for speaking at the ECB Forum and will be worth observing for clear directions.

Asian shares struggle for clear directions, even with a positive touch, as top-tier central bank leaders are up for speaking at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum. Apart from the pre-event anxiety mixed data at home also challenge the equity sellers.

That said, the disappointing Australia Inflation data pushed back hopes of another hawkish surprise from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and allowed the benchmark ASX200 to rise more than 1.0%. That said, Japan’s Nikkei 225 leads the Asian bulls as a jump in the Yen price trigger market’s chatters of government intervention.

It should be noted that MSCI’s Index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan prints minor losses while snapping a two-day winning streak. The same tracks the S&P500 Futures as it drops 0.20% intraday at the latest, paring the biggest daily jump in a fortnight. Further, the US Treasury bond yields remain depressed after rising in the last two consecutive days.

Elsewhere, fears of the fresh Sino-American tussles, due to the looming curbs on China AI orders from the US, join US President Joe Biden’s comments suggesting the dragon nation’s “enormous problems” weigh on the Chinese stocks. It's worth observing that the improvement in China's Industrial Profits for May, -12.6% YoY versus -18.2% prior, fails to inspire the bulls.

Against this backdrop, US Dollar recovers and the commodities grind higher but Antipodeans remain pressured.

Moving on, multiple second-tier data may entertain the intraday traders ahead of speeches from ECB President Christine Lagarde, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey at the ECB Forum.

Also read: Forex Today: Risk sentiment improves; focus turns to inflation data