Asian Shares Mixed In Thin Holiday Trade

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with Hong Kong and South Korean markets closed for Buddha's birthday.

The U.S. dollar and bond yields dipped while gold edged up after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the central bank is unlikely to raise its key interest rate to tackle elevated inflation.

After producer price data for April surprised on the upside, traders looked ahead to key U.S. CPI data due later in the day for clues on the Federal Reserve's next steps.

Oil prices rose on expectations for higher demand after industry data showed U.S. crude and gasoline inventories fell in the week ended May 10.

Chinese markets fell notably as the Biden administration announced steep tariff increases on a wide range of Chinese imports and the country's central bank left a key policy rate unchanged when rolling over maturing medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.82 percent to 3,119.90 despite supportive news regarding China's property sector.

Bloomberg News said that China is considering a proposal to have local governments across the country buy millions of unsold homes.

Japanese shares ended on a flat note as investors boosted bets for an interest-rate hike by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) by July.

The Nikkei average finished marginally higher at 38,385.73 ahead of the release of the first estimate of the domestic GDP for the January-March period on Thursday. The broader Topix index ended with a negative bias at 2,730.88.

Chip-linked shares advanced, with Advantest and Tokyo Electron both surging 1.9 percent.

Sony Group shares soared 8.2 percent after the conglomerate reported better-than-expected fourth quarter results and said it would conduct a five-for-one stock split and buy back up to 2.46 percent of its shares worth 250 billion yen.

Australian markets closed higher after data showed wages grew less than expected in the first quarter, denting the prospect of another rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The benchmark S&P ASX 200 rose 0.35 percent to 7,753.70 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed up 0.32 percent at 8,020.90.

Miners topped the gainers list after the federal budget included billions of dollars in tax credits for the critical minerals industry.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P NZX-50 index fell 0.79 percent to 11,525.88.

U.S. stocks fluctuated before finishing higher overnight as Treasury yields moved to the downside after initially moving higher in response to data showing an unexpected increase in producer prices.

Data showed the producer price index for final demand rose 0.5 percent in April from a month earlier after a downwardly revised 0.1 percent drop in March.

The annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 2.2 percent as expected after climbing 1.8 percent in March.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described the producer price index report as more mixed than hot, adding he doesn't expect the next move to be a rate hike.

Powell cited 'lack of progress' on price pressures and said the central bank needs to "be patient and let restrictive policy do its work."

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.8 percent to a new record closing high while the Dow inched up 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 added half a percent.