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By Stella Qiu and Alun John
BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) - Asian shares tracked Wall Street higher on Thursday, while U.S. Treasury yields steadied and dollar retreated, as latest U.S. data raised hopes that inflation may be close to peaking, though several major central banks raised rates aggressively.
Traders were waiting for a European Central Bank meeting later in the day, to see if it was as hawkish as others have been.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4% in early Asian trading, buoyed by a 0.5% gain in Australia's resource-heavy shares and a 0.6% advance in mainland China's blue chip stocks. Japan's Nikkei was up 1.2%.
South Korean shares were an outlier on Thursday. The KOSPI index fell 0.4% as the central bank raised its policy rate to the highest since August 2019 in an unexpected move as it seeks to quell surging inflation.
Asian markets including Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia are on holiday on Friday for Easter, as are major European and U.S. markets.
"I think there are a couple of recent positive developments that could be boosting Asian shares today. Firstly, U.S. core consumer prices moderated... which could mean inflation pressures may start to abate soon in the U.S., and secondly, Chinese policymakers recently came out with more encouraging remarks about stabilising and supporting economic growth," said David Chao, Hong Kong-based global market strategist at Invesco.
"I've argued that an upswing in money supply and credit growth could provide a floor for Chinese equities and signal that investor sentiment may soon start to improve, especially if COVID and geopolitical concerns start to wane."
China's cabinet on Wednesday flagged upcoming cuts to banks' reserve requirement ratios (RRR) to support an economy battered by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Yields on U.S. Treasuries steadied in early Asian trade. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was at 2.7120%, compared to an over three-year peak of 2.836%, before the U.S. data released on Tuesday showed inflation running less high than investors had feared.
The two year yield was 2.3727%, compared with a close of 2.3645% the previous day.
Retreating U.S. yields offered some relief to the bruised yen on Thursday, after it weakened past the 126 yen per dollar mark in the previous session.
The prospect of fast and aggressive U.S. interest rate hikes and growing market expectations that the Bank of Japan will keep rates ultra-low in the near term have weakened the yen.
The euro rose 0.2% against the dollar, although it was not too far away from its 1-month low on concerns about Ukraine.