: Asian equities were primed to gain on Thursday as a weaker yen and Beijing stimulus measures supported the region’s two largest stock markets.

Equity futures for Japan, Hong Kong and Australia all advanced, placing Asian equities on track to resume a rally over the past week that stalled in the prior session. Gains for Hong Kong futures came even as a benchmark of US-listed Chinese companies fell, in an early sign of fatigue for the stimulus-driven rally that has lifted Chinese equities this week.

A gauge of the region’s stocks was little changed Wednesday after advancing in the preceding four sessions to trade near the highest level since early 2022. US equity futures edged higher in early Asian trading after the S&P 500 fell slightly and the Nasdaq 100 rose. Shares in Micron Technology Inc soared more than 10% in post-market trading Wednesday on a strong revenue forecast delivered after markets closed.

Treasury yields advanced across the curve, supported gains in the dollar, as investors faced an onslaught of new bond supply from an auction of five-year notes. An index of greenback strength climbed 0.7% Wednesday. The yen was steady early Thursday after falling more than 1% against the dollar in its previous session. 

Investors in the US parsed fresh data on Wednesday for clues on the economy and housing market. Sales of new homes in the US fell last month while a separate set of data showed that mortgage rates have dropped for eight consecutive weeks, spurring demand for purchasing a home. 

“One of the things we’re watching is buyers catching up to the idea that mortgage rates are lower and that the break we’ve recently gotten in mortgage rates might be a lot of what we are expecting to get,” Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow, said on Bloomberg Television. “Mortgage rates are not expected to go too much lower from here because they moved early with that anticipation.”

With China’s central bank recently surprising the market with its broad package of monetary stimulus steps, more fiscal measures could come in the next few days as President Xi Jinping’s 24-member Politburo is set to meet ahead of the weeklong holiday.

In a rare announcement of direct aid, coming just a day after unveiling a sweeping program to stimulate the world’s second-largest economy, authorities said they will give one-off cash handouts to people in extreme poverty, the state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday, without providing details.

Elsewhere in Asia, data set for release includes industrial production in Singapore, machine tool orders in Japan and Hong Kong trade data. 

  - Bloomberg