Asian Shares Shaky As Investors Await U.S. Inflation Data

Asian stocks stuttered in choppy early trade on Wednesday as markets braced for a key US inflation reading.

On the US monetary policy front, Fed officials urged patience on interest rate cuts.

The yen lurked just shy of the 160 per dollar level, keeping traders on alert for another round of intervention by Japanese authorities, according to Ankur Banerjee from Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan remained little changed at 566.55 in volatile trading, inching away from the two-year high of 573.38 it touched last week.

The index is still up 3.5% in June, on course for its fifth straight month of gains.

Japan's Nikkei and Taiwan stocks soared, led by chipmakers, tracking the rally in the tech-heavy Nasdaq on Tuesday, with Nvidia surging over 6%, snapping out of a three-session decline that had erased about $430 billion from its market value.

In contrast, China stocks edged lower with the blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both down 0.2%, heading for a decline of 4% for the month. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also dipped 0.16%.

On the US monetary policy front, Fed officials urged patience on interest rate cuts.

Governor Lisa Cook indicated that the central bank is on track for a rate cut if the economy’s performance meets her expectations, although she declined to specify when the Fed might act.