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SINGAPORE: Asian stocks briefly made one-week highs on Wednesday, bonds rallied and the dollar sank on new hints at U.S. interest rate cuts, while the New Zealand dollar jumped after its central bank said another hike may be necessary if inflation proves stubborn.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5% in early trade before weakness in Hong Kong tech shares dragged it back to flat.
Japan's Nikkei fell 0.2%. The New Zealand dollar was last up 1.1% at a four-month high of $0.6207, having blown past resistance.
The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, slid to fresh multi-month lows on the euro, yen, sterling, the Australian dollar, yuan and Swiss franc. Gold hit a seven-month high above $2,051 an ounce.