(Reuters) - The Bank of Japan ended eight years of negative interest rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy on Tuesday, making a historic shift away from a focus of reflating growth with decades of massive monetary stimulus.

The shift makes Japan the last central bank to exit negative rates and ends an era in which policymakers around the world sought to prop up growth through cheap money and unconventional monetary tools.

Following are excerpts from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's comments at his post-meeting news conference, which was conducted in Japanese, as translated by Reuters:

IMPACT OF CENTRAL BANK'S DECISION

"Today's decision will only lead to a 0.1% increase in short-term interest rates. We will also increase bond buying nimbly if there is a sharp rise in long-term rates. I don't think deposits or lending rates will rise sharply from today's decision." SHORT-TERM RATES IN LINE WITH ECONOMIC AND PRICE OUTLOOK

"We reverted to a normal monetary policy targeting short-term interest rates, as with other central banks. We will choose the appropriate level of short-term rates in line with our economic and price outlook. But in doing so, we need to be mindful that there is some distance for inflation expectations to reach 2%. When we focus on this gap, it's necessary to maintain accommodative monetary conditions even under a normal monetary policy framework."

HIGH CHANCES OF INFLATION IN TARGET RANGE

"The likelihood of inflation stably achieving our target has been heightening, including from January through March ... As a result, the likelihood reached a certain threshold that resulted in today's decision. If the likelihood heightens further and trend inflation accelerates a bit more, that will lead to a further increase in short-term rates."

EFFECT OF BOJ'S BOND BUYING ON RATES AND MONETARY EASING

"It's true our huge bond holdings are having a huge impact on long-term interest rates that cannot be ignored. The fact we are holding huge government bonds does have a stimulative effect. But our main policy target will be the short-term interest rate."

ON THE THRESHOLD FOR THE NEXT INTEREST RATE HIKE

"If our price forecast clearly overshoots or, even if our median forecast is unchanged, we see a clear increase in upside risk to the price outlook, that will likely lead to a policy change."

DEFINING ACCOMMODATIVE MONETARY CONDITIONS

"In terms of how we define accommodative monetary conditions, it is essentially a condition in which actual interest rate is lower than the neutral rate of interest."

ON THE COUNTRY'S EXPECTATIONS ON INFLATION

"Japan's expectations of inflation, when looking at a timespan of 5 to 10 years, is likely somewhere around 1-1.5% ... At present, real interest rate is likely deeply in negative territory. Unless the neutral, real rate of interest is very deeply in negative territory, we can say Japan's monetary condition is accommodative."

ON YEN'S DROP AFTER BOJ DECISION

"As always, I won't comment on short-term currency moves. But if currency moves have a big impact on our economic and price forecasts, we stand ready to take an appropriate monetary policy response."

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden signed a new executive order on Monday that expands U.S. government research on women's health, while pledging $200 million next year to better understand issues, including sexual and reproductive conditions.

Biden is also ordering his administration to report on progress they are making to erase gender gaps in research and to study how to use artificial intelligence to improve women's health research, according to a White House summary of the order.

"I’m going to make sure women’s health is prioritized across the government," Biden told a room full of women, including actress Halle Berry and former California First Lady Maria Shriver at the White House.

The National Institutes of Health is also launching a new effort around menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms that will identify research gaps and work to close them, aides say.

Women globally live 5 years longer than men on average but spend 25% more of their lives in poor health, according to the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute. They remain underrepresented in clinical trials and conditions affecting women are researched less than those that impact men.

The executive order will require medical research to better track differences between women and men, aides say.

"Medications, treatments and medical school textbooks are based on men and their bodies but that ends today. Finally, women will get the health care they deserve," First Lady Jill Biden told the crowd.

Biden has asked Congress for $12 billion in new funding for women's health research, but new financial commitments are hard to pass in a politically divided legislature during an election year.

The administration will spend the $200 million investment announced on Monday during the 2025 fiscal year, which starts this October, if Congress grants the funding levels Biden has requested.

The Democrat is seeking another four-year term in November's election against Republican candidate former President Donald Trump.

Women make up more than half of the electorate and Democrats think attacks on women's healthcare could animate voters in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade abortion rights in 2022.

"At this moment in states across our nation we are witnessing a full on attack against hard fought hard won freedoms and rights, including the right of women to make decisions about their own body," Vice President Kamala Harris said.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Tuesday decided to end its negative interest rate policy, marking a landmark shift away from its huge stimulus programme.

It was Japan's first interest rate hike since 2007.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda is expected to hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to explain the decision.

Under its negative interest rate policy, the BOJ had applied a 0.1% charge to a small pool of financial institutions' excess reserves parked with the central bank. The policy had been in place since 2016.

With inflation having exceeded the BOJ's 2% target for well over a year, many market players had expected the central bank to exit its ultra-loose monetary policy in March or April.

By Amina Niasse

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. homebuilder confidence rose in March to the highest level since July due to easing mortgage rates and an improved pricing environment amid a continued existing home inventory shortage, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index of builder confidence rose to 51 this month from an unrevised 48 in February. A Reuters poll showed economists expected the outlook to remain unchanged at 48 in March.

"Buyer demand remains brisk and we expect more consumers to jump off the sidelines and into the marketplace if mortgage rates continue to fall later this year," NAHB Chairman Carl Harris said in a statement.

Traffic slowed during the second half of last year on the back of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, which were launched in March of 2022 in an effort to curb rising inflation. The monetary policy tightening drove the average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to two-decade highs near 8% in October.

With the U.S. central bank likely near the end of its rate hiking cycle, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.74% for the week ended March 14, according to Freddie Mac. The drop has drawn buyers from the sidelines, raising the index of prospective buyers from a 13-month low of 21 in November to 34 in March – the highest since August 2023, according to the NAHB.

The easing of mortgage rates has also allowed builders to hold off on slashing home prices. As recently as December, more than a third of builders reported offering price concessions. In March, that was down to 24%, the lowest level since July 2023, the NAHB said.

By Elizabeth Howcroft

LONDON (Reuters) - European venture capital-backed companies are signing up to increasingly complex convertible debt deals which risk giving investors more control or bigger payouts further down the road, people involved in the deals told Reuters.

Ultra-low interest rates allowed growing companies to complete equity funding rounds at sky-high valuations during a boom in 2020 and 2021. But as venture funding has dried up, companies and their investors have been wary of equity funding rounds which risk establishing a new, lower valuation.

Convertible debt, which changes into equity after a set period, can enable company founders to raise cash quickly and privately, without publishing an updated valuation.

The volume of convertible debt issued by European venture capital-backed firms hit a record $2.5 billion in 2023, up from $1.7 billion in 2022, Dealroom data compiled for Reuters shows.

But as the deals become more complex, they can offer investors more upside and create risks for the companies, according to Reuters interviews with lawyers, company founders and an investor familiar with the deals.

"If you don't know what you're doing, structured debt can be a Trojan horse," said Ali Niknam, CEO of Dutch digital bank Bunq, who has raised via convertible debt at a previous company.

"If for whatever reason you don't make it, and it gets converted, sometimes people lose control."

James Wootton, a partner at law firm Linklaters, said that as companies have found it harder to raise money, the power has shifted towards investors.

This means deals are becoming increasingly "structured", including terms that favour investors such as handing them bigger stakes if management does not meet certain targets.

Deals can be structured to create an incentive for the company to IPO or raise more funds, for example by having interest rates which accrue over time, Wootton said.

Newer convertibles include clauses that grant investors more equity if profit margins drop below a certain level or if financial targets are missed, one venture capital investor familiar with recent convertible deals said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Termsheets have also featured agreements whereby the more time that passes until an IPO, the bigger the discount at which the debt is converted into shares, the investor added.

For some, convertibles offer an opportunity to secure alternative longer-term funding while waiting for venture capital market conditions to improve.

Josef Fuss, a London-based partner at law firm Taylor Wessing who has worked on recent deals, said he had seen an increase in the size and duration of convertible notes.

"You're kicking the can down the road and you're saying we're all optimistic here, in 18 months, 24 months, the world's going to be a different place hopefully and then we can have the valuation discussion then – that is the basic premise," he said.

HARDEST MARKET

Venture fundraising in Europe has slowed sharply, from $130 billion in 2021 to $62 billion in 2023, PitchBook data shows, leaving some early-stage firms in a funding crunch as they burn through cash.

"It's the hardest market I've worked in my professional career," said James Downing, who has worked in finance for 20 years and is managing director for Europe at Hercules, a venture lender.

Hercules loaned around $200 million in the UK and Europe last year, down from around $400 million in 2022.

"(Start-ups) are not as lend-able as they were a couple of years ago when they were flush with VC equity," Downing said, adding that fintech, software and consumer-focused companies were those running out of cash fastest.

Traditional bank loans are not available to everyone and can be expensive - market rates are around 9-13% for earlier-stage and 7.5%-10% for later-stage companies, said Sonya Iovieno, head of venture and growth banking at HSBC Innovation Banking.

To be sure, not all firms using debt are running out of cash or avoiding a revaluation, and convertibles are not necessarily risky, the industry participants who spoke to Reuters said.

Norwegian lithium-ion battery business Morrow is among the VC-backed companies which helped swell convertible debt issued by start-ups to last year's record.

Morrow told Reuters it placed a convertible loan last year among its main shareholders.

"Like other start-ups, Morrow Batteries has found that the capital markets have become more challenging the last couple of years for companies in the scale-up phase as we are," CEO Lars Christian Bacher said in emailed comments.

Later-stage companies are also getting a taste for convertibles. Swedish battery-maker Northvolt has raised $3.5 billion in such debt since 2022 and listed companies in the U.S. are turning to convertible bonds to save on interest costs.

While venture capital firms are optimistic that equity fundraising will recover when rates fall, some companies may not be able to stave off lower valuations indefinitely, said Aberdeen University's Chair of Finance, Gerhard Kling.

"Delaying revaluations is not a good strategy because at the end of the day it's the truth, it comes out, you can’t escape," he said. "It's a bit of a gamble, you hope the market condition improves but I'm not entirely convinced it will."

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Asian shares firmed on Monday as Chinese data surprised on the upside for once, while investors looked to navigate a minefield of central bank meetings this week that could see the end of free money in Japan and a slower glide path for U.S. rate cuts.

Beijing reported industrial output climbed an annual 7% over January and February, while retail sales rose 5.5% on a year earlier. But real estate remained a worry as property investmentfell 9% on the year, underlining the case for further policy support.

Central banks in the United States, Japan, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico all meet this week and, while many are expected to hold steady, there is plenty of scope for surprises.

Tuesday could see the end of an era as the Bank of Japan is widely tipped to end eight years of negative interest rates and cease or amend its yield curve control policy.

The Nikkei newspaper on Saturday became just the latest media outlet to flag the move, after major companies granted the biggest pay hikes in 33 years.

There is a chance the BOJ might wait for its April meeting given it will be issuing updated economic forecasts then.

"Whether or not it is March or April, we suspect the language accompanying any such move will carry a cautious tone, emphasising it more as a monetary policy adjustment rather than a tightening at this stage," said Carl Ang, a fixed income analyst at MFS Investment Management.

"For Japan a measured and gradual path of policy normalisation appears appropriate for an economy unaccustomed to higher rates and thus the policy messaging will be critical."

Markets also assume the BOJ will hike at a snail's pace and have a rate of 0.27% priced in by December, compared with the current -0.1%.

The central bank on Monday said it would conduct an unscheduled operation to buy bonds, presumably to head off any significant rise in yields and avoid market volatility.

That might be one reason the yen actually lost ground last week, with the dollar up at 149.10 yen. The euro stood at $1.0887, having eased 0.5% last week and away from a top of $1.0963.

Japan's Nikkei bounced more than 2%, having shed 2.4% last week as a run up to record highs drew some profit taking.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3%, after dipping 0.7% last week. Chinese blue chips firmed 0.6%.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures both edged up 0.16% and 0.1%, respectively. S&P 500 futures added 0.3% and Nasdaq futures 0.54%, with tension building ahead of the Federal Reserve policy meeting in Tuesday and Wednesday.

COUNTING THE DOTS

The Fed is considered certain to keep rates at 5.25-5.5%, but there is a possibility it might signal a higher for longer outlook on policy given the stickiness of inflation at both a consumer and producer level.

"We now expect 3 cuts in 2024, vs 4 previously, mainly because of the slightly higher inflation path," said Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius in a note.

He still expects the Fed will start in June, assuming inflation eases again as expected, and officials will stick with their dot plot forecasts of three cuts this year.

"The main risk is that FOMC participants might instead be more concerned about the recent inflation data and less convinced that inflation will resume its earlier soft trend," Hatzius cautioned. "In that case, they might bump up their 2024 core PCE inflation forecast to 2.5% and show a 2-cut median."

The Fed is also expected to begin formal discussion of slowing the pace of its bond sales this week, perhaps halving it to $30 billion a month.

Bonds could do with the support given the damage done by a run of uncomfortably high inflation readings. Two-year Treasury yields are up at 4.72%, having climbed 24 basis points last week, while 10-year yields stood at 4.305%. [US/]

The probability of a rate cut as early as June has dropped to 56%, from 75% a week earlier, and the market has only 72 basis points of easing priced in for 2024 compared to more than 140 basis points a month ago.

The Bank of England meets on Thursday and is expected to keep rates at 5.25% as wage growth cools, while markets see some chance the Swiss National Bank might ease this week.

The ascent in the dollar and yields took some shine off gold, which eased to $2,146.70 an ounce, having fallen 1% last week and away from all-time highs. [GOL/]

Oil prices have had a better run after the International Energy Agency raised its view on 2024 oil demand, while the supply outlook was clouded by Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. [O/R]

Brent added 35 cents to $85.69 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 36 cents to $81.40 per barrel. [O/R]

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters -Japan's biggest companies agreed to raise wages by 5.28% for 2024, the heftiest pay hikes in 33 years, the country's largest union group said on Friday, reinforcing views that the county's central bank will soon shift away from a decade-long stimulus programme.

The much-stronger-than-expected increase comes as the Bank of Japan looks close to ending eight years of negative interest rate policy. BOJ officials have stressed the timing of a pivot would depend on the outcome of this year's annual wage negotiations.

Policymakers hope that big pay rises will boost household spending and produce more durable growth in the broader economy, which narrowly avoided slipping into recession late last year.

Workers at major firms had asked for annual increases of 5.85%, topping the 5% mark for the first time in 30 years, according to trade union group Rengo.

"We estimate that this year's wage hikes could reach 5.3%. If that is realised, real wages would turn positive in April-June 2024," said Moe Nakahama, an economist at Itochu Economic Research Institute.

Rengo, which represents about 7 million workers, many at large companies, had set its eyes on hikes of more than 3% in base pay -- a key barometer of wage strength as it provides the basis for bonuses, severance and pensions.

Analysts had expected a rise of more than 4%, after last year's 3.6%, itself a three-decade high.

Rengo chief Tomoko Yoshino told a press conference that rising income inequality, inflation and a labour crunch were among the factors behind the big increase, adding part-time workers would see pay hikes of 6% this fiscal year.

Yoshino said the country was at a critical stage in a shift towards economic revival.

The government is counting on such wage hikes to trickle down to smaller and medium-sized firms, which account for a whopping 99.7% of all enterprises and about 70% of the country's workforce, but many lack the pricing power to pass higher costs on to their customers.

Wage talks for most smaller companies are expected to conclude by the end of March, and any increments are likely to come in lower than those agreed by major firms.

Among smaller delivery companies, for example, only 57% are planning any wage hikes in the fiscal year from April, according to a Japan Chamber of Commerce survey published last month.

Even though Japanese companies have been raising pay, the increases have largely failed to keep up with inflation. Real wages, which are adjusted for inflation, have now fallen for 22 straight months.

LABOUR SHORTAGES

At the labour negotiations, one strong showing emerged after another, led by Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM), the bellwether of annual talks, which unveiled its biggest pay increase in 25 years.

The bumper wage hikes are likely to boost expectations the central bank will end negative interest rates as early as its next policy setting meeting on March 18-19.

Japanese businesses are facing a chronic labour shortage due to an ageing and dwindling pool of workers.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pushing companies to raise wages to help Japan shake off years of deflation and put an end to meagre wage growth that has kept well behind the average for the OECD grouping of rich countries.

The annual pay negotiations - called "shunto" or "spring labour offensive" - are one of the defining features of Japanese business, where relations between labour and management tend to be more collaborative than in some other countries.

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's factory output and retail sales beat expectations in the January-February period, marking a solid start for 2024 and offering some relief to policymakers even as weakness in the property sector remains a drag on the economy and confidence.

Industrial output rose 7.0% in the first two months of the year, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday, above expectations for a 5.0% increase in a Reuters poll of analysts and faster than the 6.8% growth seen in December. It also marked the quickest growth in almost two years.

Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 5.5%, slowing from a 7.4% increase in December. Analysts had expected retail sales to grow 5.2%.

The eight-day Lunar New Year holiday in February saw a solid return of travel, which supported revenue of tourism and hospitality sectors.

"China’s activity data broadly stabilised at the start of the year. But there are still reasons to think some of the strength could be one-off," Louise Loo, China economist at Oxford Economics.

"Consumers were buoyed temporarily by festivities-related spending at this start of the year. In the absence of decisive consumption-related stimulus this year, we think it would be difficult to sustain a robust consumer spending pace this year."

Fixed asset investment expanded 4.2% in the first two months of 2024 from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 3.2% rise. It grew 3.0% in the whole of 2023.

Notably, private investment grew 0.4% in the first two months, reversing the decline of 0.4% in the whole year of 2023.

Together with better-than-expected trade data and consumer inflation, Monday's indicators will provide some temporary encouragement for policymakers as they try to shore up growth in the world's second-largest economy to keep it on track for an expansion of around 5% this year.

PROPERTY PAINS

But analysts say achieving such growth would be more challenging than last year, which had a lower base effect due to COVID curbs in 2022. Moreover, the property sector remains weak and could continue to be a major impediment to a solid recovery this year.

Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said the economic outlook in the second quarter remains uncertain, noting that property sales "plummeted" while the unemployment rate rose.

Property investment slid 9.0% year-on-year in January-February, compared with a 24.0% fall in December but still far from levels of reaching stability.

The frailty of the sector was highlighted by the poor sales. Property sales by floor area logged a 20.5% slide in January-February from a year earlier, compared with a 23.0% fall in December last year.

The job market worsened with the nationwide survey-based jobless rate at 5.3% in January-February, up from 5.1% in December.

The NBS publishes combined January and February industrial output and retail sales data to smooth out distortions caused by the shifting timing of the Lunar New Year. Activity picked up in the first two months of 2023 as COVID curbs were lifted, which may create a less flattering base effect for this year's data.

Premier Li Qiang promised at the annual parliamentary meeting earlier this month to transform the country's growth model and defuse risks in the property sector and local government debt.

China plans to issue 1 trillion yuan in special ultra-long term treasury bonds to support some key sectors and set a higher quota for local government special bond issuance this year.

The country's central bank governor Pan Gongsheng also said at a press conference on March 6 that there was still room to cut banks' reserve ratio requirement (RRR), following a 50-basis points cut announced in January, which was the biggest in two years.

Global monetary easing expectations may also offer some relief for China's hopes of strengthening its vast manufacturing sector although economic conditions in many key developed nations look gloomy over the near term. Britain slipped into a recession in the second half of last year, while Japan and the euro zone have shown meager growth.

Policymakers have pledged to roll out further measures to help stabilise growth after the steps implemented since June had only a modest effect, but analysts caution Beijing's fiscal capacity is now very limited and note Li's address to the annual parliamentary meeting failed to inspire investor confidence.

Many economists say there is a risk that China may begin flirting with Japan-style stagnation later this decade unless authorities take steps to reorient the economy towards household consumption and market-allocation of resources.

By Jamie McGeever

(Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.

A batch of top-tier Chinese economic data releases gets Asian markets underway on Monday, with sentiment pretty fragile after last week's global market wobble and as investors brace for U.S. and Japanese policy decisions later in the week.

Asian equity markets are on the defensive. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index's 1.4% slump on Friday - its steepest since January - sealed its biggest weekly loss in two months, while Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 2.5% for its biggest weekly loss this year.

The sharp rebound in U.S. bond yields is taking its toll on risk appetite, and was probably the main catalyst for the selloff in global stocks last week.

The ICE BofA U.S. Treasuries index fell every day last week, its worst run since August resulting in the biggest weekly fall since October. The two-year yield rose 24 basis points, almost the equivalent of a quarter-point rate hike.

The Asia and Pacific calendar this week is packed with hugely important economic data releases and central bank policy meetings, none more so than the Bank of Japan's two-day meeting that starts on Monday.

Expectations are high that the BOJ will raise interest rates for the first time since 2007, bringing the curtain down on eight years of 'negative interest rate policy', or NIRP.

Japan's biggest companies agreed to raise wages by 5.28% for 2024, the heftiest pay hikes in 33 years, the country's largest union group said on Friday, reinforcing views that policymakers will make their historic move on Tuesday.

Sources have also told Reuters that the BOJ will offer guidance on how much government bonds it will buy upon ending NIRP and yield curve control (YCC), to avoid causing market disruptions.

Policy decisions from the central banks of China, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan are also on tap this week, as are inflation figures from Japan and New Zealand's fourth-quarter GDP report.

The week kicks off on Monday, though, with four key indicators from China - business investment, retail sales, industrial production and unemployment.

Some green shoots of recovery in China are gradually becoming visible. There are signs that capital is no longer flooding out the country, stocks have recovered, and some economic data is improving - China's economic surprises index is the highest since October.

But the road to recovery will be long and rocky. Figures last week showed that house prices fell at their fastest annual rate in over a year, and new bank lending growth fell to the lowest on record.

Figures on Monday are expected to show that business investment growth in February ticked up to 3.2%, industrial output growth slowed to 5.0% and retail sales also slowed to 5.2% from the month before. These are all year-on-year measures.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Monday:

- China 'data dump' (February)

- Japan machinery orders (January)

- Malaysia trade (February)

(By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Investing.com -- Central bank decisions will be front and center in what’s set to be an action-packed week as investors attempt to gauge how close the Federal Reserve is to cutting rates. The Bank of Japan appears to be shaping up to exit negative interest rates after months of anticipation. Meanwhile, AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is to hold a closely watched developer conference. Here’s what you need to know to start your week.

Federal Reserve meeting

Last week’s hotter-than-expected U.S. producer and consumer price data prompted traders to rein in bets on future cuts from the Fed.

All eyes are now on Wednesday’s Fed meeting and any clues on the central bank's outlook for rate cuts, the resilience of the U.S. economy and the possibility of an inflationary rebound.

Earlier this month Fed Chair Jerome Powell said officials have “gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably” toward the central bank’s 2% goal but added that they want more evidence that inflation is slowing before they begin easing.

“We think that the Fed is still likely to ease at mid-year (June or July), but the FOMC meeting will keep us squarely in the wait-and-see period by another one or two meeting cycles, with Jay Powell repeating that he needs a “little bit more” evidence that disinflation is sustainable before he would cut the Fed Funds rate target” analysts at Macquarie said in a note.

BOJ

Tuesday’s BOJ meeting could be one of the most consequential in years with officials set to decide whether to end eight years of negative interest rates in what would mark a landmark shift away from its huge stimulus program.

Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported Saturday that the BOJ is expected to end its negative interest rate policy this week after the countries biggest companies agreed with labour unions to raise wages by the largest amount in 33 years in annual wage negotiations.

The BOJ began coordinating both within and outside the bank Friday on ending its negative interest rate policy, the report said.

With an end to negative rates seen as nearly a done deal, the market's attention is shifting to any clues the BOJ could give on the pace of any interest rate hikes thereafter.

Bank of England

The BoE will likely play for time in Thursday's rate announcement as it awaits greater clarity on wage growth, which remains stronger than in the U.S. or the euro zone. 

Markets are currently expecting the BoE to start cutting borrowing costs from 5.25% - the highest since 2008 - in August, after both the Fed and the European Central Bank.

Investors will be on the lookout for any change in language about putting the BoE's Bank Rate "under review" and any shift in the balance of votes after February's three-ways split. And Wednesday's inflation reading could cause a last-minute rethink.

Nvidia developer conference

The Nvidia GTC developer conference due to get underway on Monday will be watched closely for AI-related announcements with investors undoubtedly keen to hear announcements that will sustain the mammoth rally in its stock.

CEO Jensen Huang will deliver the keynote address and may offer attendees a first look at its newest products, including its next generation B100 GPU for AI and high-performance computing applications.

Nvidia’s gains for the year to date have already added $1 trillion to the company’s market valuation, catapulting it into a position as the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 Index, but the stock has seen some volatility since a record high close on March 7.

Oil prices

Oil prices dipped on Friday, a day after topping $85 a barrel for the first time since November, but prices finished more than 3% higher for the week on rising demand from U.S. refiners completing planned overhauls.

In the coming week energy traders will be looking to Wednesday’s Fed meeting as cuts in interest rates are seen as opportunity for demand growth in the United States.

Oil prices were boosted after the International Energy Agency on Thursday raised its view on 2024 oil demand for a fourth time since November as Houthi attacks have disrupted Red Sea shipping.

The gains came despite the U.S. dollar strengthening at its fastest pace in eight weeks. A stronger dollar makes crude more expensive for users of other currencies.

--Reuters contributed to this report