In Asian Equity Markets Japanese stocks pared early gains to end a notch higher in volatile trade on Wednesday, as investors stayed on guard for more losses in global equity markets after U.S. futures slipped. The Nikkei 225 share average ended 0.2 percent higher at 21,645.37, after climbing as high as 22,353.87 in early trade. Mining companies, drug-makers and automakers outperformed. Eisai Co rose 2.4 percent, Astellas Pharma gained 2.5 percent, and Inpex Corp added 1.4 percent. Toyota Motor Corp rose 1.2 percent after the automaker said that it expects a record net profit this year. South Korea’s Kospi reversed early gains to slide 0.63 percent. Heavyweight tech names, which were firmly in positive territory in the morning, traded mixed. Samsung Electronics slid 1.56 percent while rival chip-maker SK Hynix jumped 3.13 percent.

In Currency Markets the US dollar was firmer against the yen but trimmed gains against the euro on Wednesday when U.S. equities bounced overnight after suffering deep losses earlier in the week. The greenback had risen against currencies like the euro as investors sought shelter amid the decline in global equities seen at the start of the week, triggered by a massive decline by Wall Street shares. The dollar was a shade higher at 109.590 yen after rising 0.5 percent overnight. It had gone to as low as 108.460 the previous day during wild swings in global equities. The euro inched up 0.05 percent to $1.2383 after slipping to a two-week low of $1.2314 the previous day. The Australian dollar was 0.15 percent lower at $0.7893 but still some distance away from a one-month low of $0.7835 printed on Tuesday.

In Commodities Markets oil prices rose on Wednesday amid a share market recovery and supported by a report that U.S. crude inventories fell last week, although analysts warned that increasing U.S. output and a seasonal demand drop could soon weigh on crude. Brent crude futures were at $67.44 per barrel, up 58 cents, or 0.9 percent, from the previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $64.04 a barrel. That was up 65 cents, or 1 percent, from their last settlement. The higher oil futures came after stock markets recovered some of their steep losses of previous days. The market was supported by a report by the American Petroleum Institute (API) saying that U.S. crude inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels in the week to Feb. 2 to 418.4 million barrels, traders said.

In US Equity Markets  stocks posted sharp gains in another wild trading session on Tuesday, as indexes rebounded from the biggest one-day declines for the S&P 500 and the Dow in more than six years that stalled the market’s record run. Stocks swung from negative to positive after indexes started the session 2 percent lower. The S&P 500 gained 46.2 points, or 1.74 percent, to 2,695.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 148.36 points, or 2.13 percent, to 7,115.88. Technology, materials and consumer discretionary were the top-performing sectors on Tuesday. Defensive sectors utilities and real estate were the only major S&P groups to end negative. Shares of Snap jumped nearly 30 percent after the bell. The company announced an earnings-per-share loss that was smaller than analysts predicted and revenue that beat estimates.

In Bond Markets  U.S. Treasury debt prices gained on the day on Tuesday as volatile equity markets led some investors to seek out lower risk bonds.  Benchmark 10-year yields jumped to 2.885 percent in overnight trading on Monday, the highest since January 2014, before falling as low as 2.707 percent as stock selloff hastened in the New York afternoon session. The United States saw soft demand for a $26 billion sale of three-year notes on Tuesday, the first sale of $66 billion in coupon-bearing supply this week. The Treasury will also sell $24 billion in 10-year notes on Wednesday and $16 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday. Japanese JGB yield rose 1 basis point to 0.080 percent on Wednesday as Japanese stocks rebounded after three days of heavy losses and reduced investor demand for safe-haven debt.

Today’s inflection points

• 12:00 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Kaplan (non-voter, neutral) speaks
• 14:30 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Dudley (voter, neutral) speaks
• 16:15 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Evans (non-voter, dovish) speaks
• 16:30 GMT+1 USD DOE U.S. crude oil inventories
• 21:00 GMT+1 NZD Reserve Bank of New Zealand (cash rate decision)
• 23:20 GMT+1 USD Fed’s Williams (voter, neutral) speaks