Bull statues are placed in font of screens showing the Hang Seng stock index and stock prices outside Exchange Square, in Hong Kong, China, August 18, 2023. The S&P 500 (.SPX) gained overnight and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 1.3% to a two-week high in morning trade. "I actually don't think we need to increase rates anymore," Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told the American Bankers Association, to applause, in Nashville on Tuesday. On Wednesday the Australian and New Zealand dollars hit their highest levels on the dollar since the end of September, while sterling hit a three-week peak. European gas prices, which had jumped on news of the Middle East violence, surged further on Tuesday on concern a gas pipe in Finland was sabotaged.

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Persons: Tyrone Siu, Raphael Bostic, Peter Dragicevich, Brent, Vivek Dhar, Sam Rines, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Federal Reserve, paring, Japan's Nikkei, Atlanta Fed, American Bankers Association, Treasury, New Zealand, U.S, CPI, Fed, Bloomberg, HK, Benchmark, Samsung, Pepsi, Thomson Locations: Exchange, Hong Kong, China, SINGAPORE, paring U.S, Asia, Pacific, Japan, Nashville, Tuesday's, Israel, Finland, Estonia, Europe, Texas