SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose on Thursday, with the Nikkei breaching a new 34-year peak, while the dollar took a breather near a three-month high as markets assess when the Federal Reserve is likely to start its easing cycle after a run of strong economic data.
Regional currencies were still reeling from a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation reading, which saw traders further scale back expectations of early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Bullion prices took some relief from mild losses in the dollar, which consolidated in overnight trade after racing to three-month highs earlier this week. The greenback is now likely to see more near-term gains, as traders began further scaling back expectations for early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Bitcoin is currently trading around $51,770, its highest level since December 2021. The rise has taken its market cap to $1 trillion. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, is up close to 4% at the time of writing, trading at around $2,746.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU), which rose 28.91% or 14.82 points to trade at 66.08 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 10.17% or 0.03 points to end at 0.33 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was up 9.09% or 0.03 points to 0.30 in late trade.
