Asian Shares Mixed as Traders Look to Jackson Hole

Asian shares were largely mixed Monday with traders expecting hawkish commentary from U.S. Federal Reserve officials this week at its annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

The Nikkei Stock Average traded 0.2% higher after the yen slipped against the U.S. dollar in early trade in Asia. Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda is expected to speak Tuesday and will likely expand on comments he made to the Sankei newspaper that the BOJ has room to cut interest rates.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 is trading 0.1% lower with Korea's Kospi trading 0.6% down. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading 0.1% higher.

"Half of the market believes there will be another rate increase [in the U.S.] either in December or January," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management. But the prospect for September is uncertain, he said. "That means a higher yen environment is likely to continue."

Also weighing on the markets were oil prices that traded weaker in early Asia trade Monday.

Data on Friday showed an increase in the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. last week, spurring fears that the recent rally in oil prices attracted more U.S. shale gas producers to return to the oil patch, according to ANZ.

The strong dollar is also keeping oil prices down, the bank said.

"The market is likely to remain in a tight range this week with a lack of data providing little insight into China's industrial activity," ANZ said.

U.S. crude was trading lower at $48.25 a barrel with Brent also down to $50.41 a barrel.

Bank Indonesia left interest rates unchanged for the second-consecutive month Friday, waiting for the previous, recent easing measures to work on the economy. The country's bonds have attracted a fair bit of foreign-investor interest because of attractive yields.

In China, Sheng Songcheng, head of the People's Bank of China's statistics department, said cutting taxes and increasing the fiscal deficit would be more effective than lowering interest rates in bolstering the economy. The comments come weeks after an editorial in the state-run Xinhua media admonished speculators for betting on an interest-rate cut by China's central bank.

Business sentiment, manufacturing and industrial production data are due from China later Monday.

Kosaku Narioka, Jenny Hsu and Grace Zhu contributed to this article.

Write to Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2016 22:45 ET (02:45 GMT)

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