SYDNEY: Asian shares were trading cautiously on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to earnings results from artificial intelligence darling Nvidia where the risk of disappointment is high, while the dollar steadied after three straight sessions of declines.
The world's most valuable company Nvidia will report its third-quarter results after the bell. Shares climbed 4.9 per cent on Tuesday and options imply a move of almost 9% either direction in the US$3.6 trillion stock often seen as a barometer for the tech sector's shift to AI.
Nasdaq futures rose 0.2 per cent on Wednesday on top of a 1 per cent jump overnight. EUROSTOXX 50 futures gained 0.4 per cent , while FTSE futures were flat.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.1 per cent, and Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.2 per cent .
Bitcoin last held above US$92,000, having broken above US$94,000 for the first time overnight on expectations U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's administration will be crypto-friendly. Investors are also watching Trump's pick for Treasury secretary, which may come as soon as Wednesday.
In China, the central bank held benchmark lending rates steady as widely expected. Chinese mainland stocks outperformed, with blue chips gaining 0.4 per cent . Hong Kong's Hang Seng index edged up 0.1 per cent .
"(Nvidia) was naturally the key topic on everyone's mind. Big-picture, a nice beat seems widely anticipated tomorrow," said Joshua Meyers, executive director at JPMorgan, in a note to clients.
"FY26 expectations have become quite ebullient, a worry that comes up increasingly in conversations," Meyers said, adding that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's commentary on the earnings call would be particularly important to "level-set expectations (or not)."
Overnight, investors were rattled by Ukraine's use of U.S. missiles to strike Russia, with Moscow lowering the threshold for a possible nuclear strike, although those fears seem to have abated a little.
Safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc gained briefly, as did U.S. Treasuries. Benchmark 10-year note yields were last up 2 basis points at 4.4041 per cent, having fallen 4 bps overnight and still some distance away from a five-month top of 4.505 per cent .
The dollar also reversed some of the overnight losses against the yen and was last up 0.2 per cent to 155.03, having hit a one-week low of 153.28 overnight.
Against its major peers, the U.S. dollar steadied near one-week lows at 106.23, after three straight sessions of declines to pull away from a recent top of 107.07.
Oil prices were flat on Wednesday, after edging up just a little overnight. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures held at $69.39 a barrel, having ended Tuesday just 0.3 per cent higher.
Gold climbed for a third straight session, up 0.2 per cent to US$2,636.46 per ounce.