SYDNEY: Asian markets were in a guardedly upbeat mood on Monday, heading into an event-packed week headlined by U.S. inflation data and the first House testimony by the new head of the Federal Reserve.A modest improvement in risk appetite saw the safe-haven yen lost ground, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed 0.3 percent.Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.4 percent and E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent.The gains followed Wall Street, where the Dow ended Friday up by 1.39 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 1.60 percent and the Nasdaq 1.77 percent.For the week, the Dow rose 0.37 percent, the S&P 0.56 percent and the Nasdaq 1.35 percent. [.N]The VIX volatility index fell just over 2 points on Friday to end at 16.49 percent, far below the 50 percent peak touched at the height of market turmoil in early February.The mood has calmed partly thanks to expectations the Federal Reserve will stay gradual in its tightening, a measured outlook underlined by the central bank in a governors' report released on Friday.Investors also seem to be wagering that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will stick to that script at his first appearance before the House on Tuesday, followed by testimony to the Senate on Thursday. "Powell will be highly cognisant of the spike in risk aversion in late January and will be keen not to rock the boat too greatly," argued Chris Weston, chief market strategist at broker IG. "Futures markets on Friday were pricing in less implied policy tightening from the Fed in the years ahead, suggesting traders are not expecting Powell to signal a more aggressive response. [O/R]U.S. crude futures added 2 cents to $63.57 a barrel, while Brent futures eased 2 cents to $67.29.

Source: The Star February 26, 2018 00:45 UTC