Asian Stocks End Mostly Higher
NEW YORK (
) -- Asian stocks ended mostly higher Wednesday after the Bank of Japan kept a key interest rate at 0.1%.
The Nikkei 225 stock average in Tokyo rose 0.1%. The last time Japan's central bank touched the overnight call rate target was December 2008.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 1.8%, its first day of trading this week after being closed for a holiday. Shanghai's benchmark index fell 0.3%.
European shares were trading slightly lower.
Premarket futures suggested stocks in the U.S. would open lower Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell less than 0.1% to 10,969.99, the
S&P 500
rose 0.2% and the
Nasdaq
gained 0.3%, after minutes of the
Federal Reserve
meeting in March revealed the Fed could keep rates low for quite some time.
-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.
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