Asian shares tread water as investors await direction

A pedestrian walks past an electronic stock board outside a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan. Picture: BLOOMBERG/KEITH BEDFORD

Global equities markets have scaled new highs since the start of the year largely on expectations of easy monetary policies around the world while a positive tone on US-China trade negotiations has also aided sentiment.“Coming into May, the search for the next catalyst becomes an obvious necessary condition to give an answer to the traditional question: is it time to sell and go away?” said Claudio Irigoyen, economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.

“It follows that the overall environment is therefore still favourable for EM [emerging markets], not so much due to cheap valuations but still attractive enough risk-adjusted carry.” In currency markets, the greenback took a breather following strong gains overnight after the US Federal Reserve kept the target range for its policy rate unchanged at its May meeting.

“In the press conference, [Fed] chairman [Jerome] Powell chose to strike a somewhat more hawkish tone, attributing the unexpected fall in core inflation this year to transitory factors and not signalling much concern about the underlying inflation picture at the moment,” Stupnytska added.

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