Reuters - Asia stock markets snapped their longest losing streak since February on Thursday and rose following a bounce on Wall Street - though subdued trade in currency, commodity and bond markets suggested market participants remain cautious.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained half a percent. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5 percent and markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong opened higher. But pressure returned to oil prices on worries about soft demand, a harbinger of weaker international growth.
An overnight rally in riskier currencies paused as foreign-exchange traders looked for the European Central Bank's tone at its meeting later Thursday to guide the next move for the euro, dollar and the broader market.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures each fell 0.4 percent in Asia.
Indonesia's main stock index fell 4 percent to its lowest in more than a month on news the country's capital Jakarta will reinstate social distancing restrictions as a result of a rise in coronavirus infections.
"The price action suggests that strong buying interest remains on market corrections given the backdrop of ample central bank liquidity," economists Liz Kendall and Brian Martin at ANZ Bank said. "However, with some volatility having returned to markets it's too soon to say whether the rout is over, or whether last night's recovery is simply a pause," they added.
Overnight on Wall Street the technology-heavy Nasdaq posted its steepest rise in more than four months, gaining 2.7 percent, to halt three sessions of selling that whacked tech stocks.
Shares of stay-at-home companies such as Facebook, Inc. and Google-parent Alphabet, Inc. climbed, while electric-car maker Tesla, Inc. shares rebounded nearly 11 percent, a day after suffering its biggest ever percentage drop.
Overnight in the U.S. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 added 2 percent. Bonds sold off in concert with the rally. The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. government debt rose about 2 basis points to 0.71 percent overnight with soft demand at a $35 billion auction. That retraced a little bit to sit at 0.6951 percent in Asia.
The rebound in equities has steadied selling that has highlighted the fragility of a rally that has carried the Nasdaq up 70 percent from March lows.
"It's a double-edged sword," said Oriano Lizza, sales trader at CMC Markets in Singapore, as retail investors who had great success on the way up now facing a tougher environment."
"This is where there's a lot of trepidation," he said. "The market structure is dislocated at the moment... with stimulus and (markets at) all-time highs - there's no reference point."
The European Central Bank policy decision at 1145 GMT, followed by a news conference from President Christine Lagarde at 1230 GMT, is the next attention grabber for market participants.
Earlier in the week worries that the bank is concerned at the euro's recent rise had the euro under pressure.
However, hopes for an improving economic outlook, following a Bloomberg News report that ECB economic projections would be broadly steady since June, had the euro on the front foot in Asia at $1.1817.
"The risk now is that the euro could lift after the ECB meeting, if that is the case and there is more confidence," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia currency analyst Kim Mundy, something that would pull other currencies higher on the dollar.
Elsewhere oil prices paring some overnight gains on worries about fuel demand after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week, rather than dropping as expected.
Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to $40.63 a barrel and U.S. crude futures fell 0.6% to $37.82 a barrel. Gold was steady at $1,943 an ounce.
