European stocks were higher too, with inflation updates from France and Spain coming in on forecast - the former remaining below 2% for the fourth month running.
The European Central Bank is likely to keep easing policy this year but needs to be cautious as exceptional uncertainty - from a potential global trade war to domestic politics - clouds the outlook, two of the bank's top officials said on Wednesday.
"From our point of view, saying here's where we think the future rate path is going to be conveys a sense of certainty that we don't feel," ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said in Hong Kong.
And it's that level of uncertainty - not least about the potentially inflationary policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration - that means bond market relief about backward-looking inflation data may be tempered.
Trump's inauguration is on Jan. 20, but the confirmation hearing for his Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent is due tomorrow.
Elsewhere, Chinese stocks underperformed as they gave back part of Tuesday's sharp rally. Trepidation about looming U.S. tariff hikes and a fresh sweep of U.S. technology curbs is keeping sentiment subdued ahead of Friday's big economic data dump of quarterly GDP and December industry numbers.
Perhaps one factor unnerving world bond markets this month, Japan's yen firmed against the softer dollar as speculation builds about another interest rate rise from the Bank of Japan as soon as next week.
The Bank of Japan will debate whether to raise interest rates next week, Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday, signalling its intention to take borrowing costs higher barring a Trump-driven market shock.
"There was a lot of positive talk on the wage outlook" when the BOJ's regional branch managers met last week, Ueda said.
"We will discuss whether to raise interest rates at next week's policy meeting and would like to reach a decision."
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