BENGALURU: Most Asian currencies struggled for momentum on Wednesday while stocks inched higher as investors awaited minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting and an interest rate decision from Bank Indonesia for further direction.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%. Shares in Taiwan climbed more than 1% to hit a record high, with investors awaiting Nvidia’s quarterly results.
Investors kept to the sidelines ahead of the release of the Fed minutes, which could offer more cues on the timing and extent of possible rate cuts this year.
Fed policy makers have indicated that they might need to see further evidence of inflation slowing down before cutting rates.
“There is not much of a catalyst right now. We should still expect the dollar-Asia to trade in the recent range until a bigger catalyst comes along,” said Christopher Wong, a FX strategist at OCBC.
Fed fund futures imply about a 66% chance of a rate cut by September and have 43 basis points of easing priced in for this year.
Investors will also keep a close watch on Bank Indonesia after the central bank delivered a surprise rate hike in its last policy meeting to stabilise the rupiah.
Although the currency has recouped some of its losses since the central bank’s last policy meeting, it is still down 3.7% so far this year. Equities in Indonesia rose 0.4% on Wednesday.
A Reuters poll showed that Bank Indonesia is expected to keep its key interest rate on hold through next quarter to support a weak rupiah. The decision is due later in the day.
“The risk of more tightening remains real, in our view, if currency weakness flares up again,” analysts at Barclays wrote in a note, referring to the rupiah.
An interest rate decision from the Bank of Korea is also on investors’ radar this week. The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged.
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