GLOBAL MARKETS: Asia shares cautious ahead of Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium
Shares in Asia turned cautious on Friday after a Nvidia-fuelled technology rally, while currency and bond markets held their breath for the world's most powerful central banker to speak on U.S. interest rates.
August 28, 2026
Stella Qiu/Reuters
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People walk under electronic screens displaying Japan's Nikkei share average, at a conference hall in Tokyo, Japan, August 19, 2026.
Manami Yamada/Reuters
SYDNEY - Shares in Asia turned cautious on Friday after a Nvidia-fuelled technology rally, while currency and bond markets held their breath for the world's most powerful central banker to speak on U.S. interest rates.
Oil prices were headed for weekly losses as Iran and Oman had agreed on administering traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and sharing revenues, though Washington has shown little interest in reviving direct talks with Tehran. Brent LCOc1eased 0.4% to $89.33 a barrel but was set for a weekly drop of over 5%.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.5%.
Taiwanese shares .TWII gained 0.8% after Nvidia NVDA.O jumped nearly 9% overnight after the chipmaker reported robust results and signalled the AI spending boom has years left to run. South Korea's KOSPI .KS11, however, fell 1.5%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSIrose 0.4%.
S&P 500 futures ESc1 and Nasdaq futures NQc1 were off 0.2%, while EURO STOXX 50 futures STXEc1 edged up 0.3%.
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium where Chair Kevin Warsh is slated to speak later in the day. Three Fed officials have already sounded the alarm about sticky inflation but the new central bank chief has resisted providing forward guidance about where interest rates are going.
Futures imply around a 35% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates when it meets on September 16 and are fully priced for a move by December. 0#USDIRPR
"While we do not expect him to offer forward guidance, markets are hoping he will reduce some of the uncertainty surrounding the Fed's reaction function," said analysts at ANZ in a note to clients.
"We do not expect that will be forthcoming but, given recent volatility in rates markets, if Warsh offers too little, that could lead to an adverse market reaction."
Longer-dated yields have jumped after the Fed's July meeting as Warsh was seen as not offering enough concrete steps for addressing persistently high inflation. He is also presiding over a divided Fed, with several policymakers calling for interest rate increases to stem price pressures.
On Friday, 30-year Treasury yields US30YT=RRedged up 1 basis point to 5.2045% but were down 7 basis points this week, after briefly topping 5.3% last week for the first time since 2007 and prompting a surprise intervention from U.S. Treasury to step up its buyback programme.
Ten-year yields US10YT=RRalso rose 1 bps to 4.6842% and were down 5 bps this week, while two-year yields US2YT=RR held at 4.2340% and were steady for the week.
The dollar =USD was little changed against its major peers at 99.20 on Friday but is up 0.4% for the week.
The Australian dollar was among the best-performing G10 currencies after a hot inflation report this week triggered a sharp repricing of the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest-rate outlook. The Aussie AUD= hit a three-month top of $0.72 and was set for a weekly rise of 0.4%, the ninth straight week of gains.
In commodity markets, gold slipped 0.5% to $4,579 an ounce XAU= and was set for a small drop of 0.5% this week. GOL/
-Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Kim Coghill/Reuters
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