Asian stocks gained in the run-up to the US jobs data after weak retail sales reinforced bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year. Treasury futures held their gains Wednesday after 10-year bond yields dropped to the lowest in about a month in the US session. There will be no cash trading in Treasuries during the Asian day as Japan is closed for a holiday. Gold, which typically benefits when rates are cut, rose 0.5% as money markets see slightly higher odds of three Fed cuts this year — with two already fully priced in. For more, we speak to David Finnerty, Bloomberg FX and Rates Strategist in Singapore.
Plus - in China, the consumer-price index rose just 0.2% in January from a year earlier — a slowdown caused largely by base effects — after a 0.8% rise in December. Core CPI, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, climbed 0.8%, its lowest level in six months. We got reaction to the latest reading from Robin Xing, Chief China Economist at Morgan Stanley. He spoke to Bloomberg's David Ingles and Minmin Low.
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