Asian shares gained on Wednesday after Wall Street
managed to weather a fresh twist in the controversy over U.S. President
Donald Trump's alleged connection with Russia, while investors looked
ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments.
MSCI's
broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up 0.3
percent. Japan's yen-sensitive Nikkei slid 0.4 percent on the yen's
gains but MSCI's dollar-denominated Japan index gained 0.5 percent.
European
shares are expected to rise, with spread-betters looking to gains of
0.3 percent in Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE, and a 0.2 percent rise
in France's CAC at the opening.
U.S. stocks
took a brief tumble after emails disclosed Trump's eldest son welcomed
help from a Russian lawyer for his father's 2016 election campaign
against Hillary Clinton.
But by the closing bell, Wall Street shares had clawed back their losses. The euro vaulted to a 14-month high of $1.14895 in Asian trade.
U.S. shares were helped
in part as the Senate announced a two-week delay to its August recess to
allow more time to tackle a measure that would repeal key parts of
Obamacare, as well as pursue other legislative priorities.
Still,
it remained unclear whether U.S. Senate Republicans have the votes to
pass the measure or even what form it would finally take.
On the other hand, the dollar failed to recover
after the damage suffered from the new twist in the Trump campaign's
alleged links with Russia.
The
dollar also lost steam against the yen, which had been under renewed
pressure following Friday's bond-buying by the Bank of Japan which
highlighted divergent monetary polices between the two countries.
The U.S. currency dropped 0.4 percent to 113.46 yen, slipping from a four-month high of 114.495 yen touched on Tuesday.
The
Canadian dollar stood at C$1.2907 per dollar, near Friday's 10-month
peak of C$1.2860 as investors brace for a likely rate hike by the Bank
of Canada, its first tightening since 2010, later in the day.
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