Asian equities are up, with China leading due to new stimulus measures

Following a solid overnight session on Wall Street, most Asian equities increased on Wednesday, while Chinese stocks continued their comeback bounce as the government revealed plans for a sizable bond issue.

Local technology firms gained from falling Treasury rates as well as Microsoft's excellent overnight report. Japan's Nikkei 225 index increased by more than 1%, mostly due to the performance of industrial and technology firms.

Although wider Asian equities rose, they were still suffering significant losses for the month of October as risk sentiment remained fragile following the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Prior to the Federal Reserve meeting coming up next week, markets were also nervous about rising U.S. interest rates.

After Beijing announced plans to issue 1 trillion yuan ($1= 7.3088 yuan) in government bonds to help the economy, all three indices recovered from their lowest levels for the year.

Despite suffering significant losses due to worries about an economic downturn and a collapse of the real estate industry, Chinese equities are still relatively near 2023 lows. Despite the optimism on Wednesday, the issues that had hurt domestic markets were still present.

The Chinese markets have been among Asia's poorest performers this year.

Markets were cautious in anticipation of any more monetary policy cues from the Federal Reserve, which will vote on interest rates next week. The improvement in U.S. business activity in October, according to data posted overnight, gave the Fed additional leeway to maintain higher rates.

Later on in the day in Washington, D.C., Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver a speech. Powell stated last week that there would likely be at least one more rate increase this year and that rates will stay higher for a longer period of time.

Since higher rates make risky assets less appealing and reduce capital inflows to the area, they are bad news for most Asian markets.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)