TOKYO, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Asian stocks sold off and the dollar scaled an 11-week peak against major peers on Friday as investors braced for the risk of a hawkish tilt from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at Jackson Hole.U.S. yields stabilised below 14-year highs. Crude oil found its footing around one-month lows, but remained on course for a second weekly decline amid a firmer dollar and simmering China-centred worries about global growth.Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China set a much stronger-than-anticipated official mid-point for the yuan – something it has done every day this week – to keep a floor under its currency amid the strains from a robust dollar and a sputtering economy.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares (.MIAP00000PUS) sagged 1.2%, but remained on track for a 0.5% gain for the week, which would snap a three-week run of declines.Nerves ahead of Powell’s speech at the Fed’s annual retreat for global central bankers, including the Bank of Japan’s Kazuo Ueda and European Central Bank’s Christine Lagarde, encouraged traders to cash in on this week’s tech-led rally, punctuated by chip designer Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) extremely strong financial results following Wednesday’s closing bell.The tech-centric Nasdaq (.IXIC) slumped 1.87% on Thursday to lead losses of more than 1% across Wall Street’s three major indexes, and futures indicated some further weakness at the reopen.Pan-European Stoxx 50 futures also signalled no respite from Thursday’s losses.Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) tumbled 2%, with Nvidia supplier Advantest (6857.T) the biggest drag, crashing almost 10%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (.HIS) slid 1.1%, with a tech subindex (.HSTECH) dropping about twice that amount. Mainland blue chips (.CSI300) drooped 0.6%.”It’s all down to Powell,” said Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index.”In all likelihood, he’ll peddle the ‘higher for longer’ narrative which is likely already priced in, and that leaves the potential for a ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ response,” Simpson said.”However, there is also no real reason for Powell to strike a dovish tone,” he added, “and that could mean an ugly end to the week for stocks, while the dollar shines.”The Fed has been raising rates since March 2022 in an effort to bring down inflation, and investors are looking for clarity on whether more rate increases are ahead and how long the Fed plans to hold rates high.Fed officials sent mixed signals in the final run-up. Boston Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker telling CNBC he doubted the central bank will need to raise rates again, but also indicated he was not ready to predict when rate cuts might begin. Fed President Susan Collins said on Yahoo Finance’s video channel that rates may be near or at a peak, “but certainly additional increments are possible.”The U.S. dollar index – which measures the currency against a basket of six developed-market peers, including the euro and yen – pushed as high as 104.27 in Asia, a level last seen…
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