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Beijing, China (BBN) - Major indexes in Asia traded higher on Wednesday after Moody's downgraded China's credit rating, and as investors awaited minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve and an upcoming OPEC meeting.
Moody's Investor Service downgraded China's credit rating to A1 from Aa3, and changed its outlook to stable from negative, reports cnbc.com.
While planned reforms in China will slow the increase in leverage in the economy, it will not prevent the rise in leverage, Moody's cautioned.
The Australian dollar slipped from levels around $0.7480 to as low as $0.7452 in the wake of the announcement. China is among Australia's largest export markets.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.56 percent in Wednesday trade while the Kospi gained 0.13 percent.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index edged higher by 0.11 percent.
Markets in greater China opened in the red following the downgrade.
The Hang Seng Index was marginally lower, down by 0.11 percent. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.66 percent while the Shenzhen Composite fell 0.858 percent.
Investors are also awaiting the release of minutes from the Fed's for its last meeting on Wednesday in the U.S. for details on the probability of a rate hike in June. More information from the Fed on how it intends to unwind its balance sheet is expected.
Another potentially market-moving event is the OPEC meeting on Thursday that will be led by Saudi Arabia. Oil prices have been rising on optimism over hopes that will be OPEC-led output cuts will be extended with non-OPEC key producer Russia also in the pact.
Oil prices held steady after ending the last session higher. Prices had dipped earlier in the last session on news that the White House planned to sell half of the U.S. oil stockpile. Brent crude was mostly flat, trading 0.11 percent higher at $54.21 a barrel and U.S. West Texas International crude edged up by 0.1 percent to trade at $51.52.
Over in Japan, Toshiba's U.S. nuclear arm Westinghouse Electric announced it had negotiated a deal that would let the company borrow $800 million. Toshiba shares surged 6.25 percent.
Singapore-listed commodities trader Noble Group said it was aware of media reports that Sinochem had stopped pursuing a stake in the company, but was unable to confirm whether this was accurate. The company also said it was aware of its credit rating downgrade by S&P.
Shares of Noble traded 10.71 percent down. Trade in shares of the company had been halted in the last session after shares plunged more than 32 percent.
In currency news, the dollar strengthened against a basket of rival currencies to trade at 97.349, off the six-month low seen earlier in the week. Against the yen, the greenback edged higher for the second straight session to fetch 111.81.
"U.S. Treasury yields had a small sell-off at the start of the New York session, with the move higher in yields helping the dollar perform across the board," National Australia Bank Currency Strategist Rodrigo Catril said in a Wednesday note.
The euro was mostly flat against the dollar after surpassing six-month highs on reduced political risk. Euro/dollar last traded at $1.185.
"There is a growing possibility of the European Central Bank (ECB) rattling the financial markets in the pending ECB meeting as the recent political relief invites ECB hawks. With economic data from Europe following a positive trajectory, the ECB could start considering a stimulus exit at the next meeting, which may strengthen the euro further," said Lukman Otunuga, an analyst at FXTM, in a note.
Equities stateside gained for the fourth straight session after last week's sell-off, with the Dow Jones industrial average making the most gains and ending the session higher by 0.21 percent or 43.08 points at 20,937.91.
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