Japan’s Nikkei share average ended little changed on Thursday, on caution ahead of key U.S. inflation data, with banking stocks rallying amid speculation about a Bank of Japan (BOJ) stimulus tweak heading into next week’s policy meeting.
The Nikkei ended the day up 0.01% at 26,449.82, after touching 26,547.61 for the first time since Dec. 27. The markets initially tracked overnight Wall Street gains amid bets that a mitigation in the pace of U.S. consumer price gains will allow the Federal Reserve to dial back the pace of its rate hikes.
“The topside is heavy, with investors fine-tuning positions ahead of the CPI report,” said Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura.
“At the same time, the bottom also seems quite firm,” she added. “The market’s expectation that the U.S. economy can navigate a soft rather than hard landing is supporting stocks, including in Japan.”
