TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stock markets held firm and bond yields rose on Wednesday as hopes of diminishing U.S.-China tensions and reduced risk of no-deal Brexit prompted investors to take profit in risk-off trade ahead of key central bank policy meetings.

FILE PHOTO: Passersby are reflected on an electronic board showing the exchange rates between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar, the yen against the euro, the yen against the Australian dollar, Dow Jones Industrial Average and other market indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato

In early trade, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.10% while Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.32%.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended little changed as a rally in energy and industrial shares countered a drop in the technology and real-estate sectors with investors favouring value over growth.

That represented a major reversal after many months of outperformance by growth shares such as tech shares.

“The sudden jump in value-oriented shares in the U.S. and elsewhere has all the hallmarks of position unwinding by major hedge funds,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

“Such unwinding could continue for a few days but will likely end by the Fed’s policy meeting.”

Such reversals began last week after the announcement of U.S.-China trade talks in October and as the British parliament moved to prevent Prime Minister Boris Johnson from crashing the UK out of the European Union without a deal.

Position unwinding was also apparent in bond markets ahead of key central bank policy announcements including the European Central Bank on Thursday and the U.S. Federal Reserve next week.

U.S. bond yields jumped on Wednesday, with the 10-year Treasuries yield rising more than 10 basis points to a one-month high of 1.745% US10YT=RR.

It last stood at 1.726% in Asia. Japanese 10-year JGB yield rose 1.5 basis point to minus 0.215% JP10YTN=JBTC while the Australian 10-year yield rose more than 5 basis points to six-week high of 1.142% AU10YT=RR.

In Europe, Germany's 30-year benchmark bond yield DE30YT=RR briefly broke into positive territory for the first time since Aug. 5.

Investors had bought bonds for many weeks on expectations that the ECB will dole out stimulus, with a cut in interest rates of at least 10 basis points fully priced in.

Some traders also expect more measures including a deeper interest rate cut and a restart of its asset purchase programme.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is also widely expected deliver an interest rate cut next week.

Germany also signalled its readiness for relaxing its staunch opposition to deficit spending to support the economy, leading to speculation Berlin could issue more debt and curbing appetite for German bonds.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday the country can counter a possible economic crisis by injecting billions of euros into the economy.

In the currency market, the dollar traded at 107.58 yen JPY=, having hit a six-week high of 107.63 earlier on Wednesday.

The euro stood little changed at $1.10485 EUR=, while the British pound stood at $1.2358 GBP=D4, near its six-week high of $1.2385 hit earlier in the week.

Oil prices held firm near their highest levels in six weeks despite small losses on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump fired national security adviser John Bolton.

Departure of Bolton, who took a strident stance against Iran, raised speculation of improvement in U.S.-Iran relations and an eventual return of Iranian crude exports to the market.

Still, the market was underpinned by Saudi Arabia’s new energy minister’s assurances of continued output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In addition, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are nowhere near subsiding after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to annex a large swathe of the occupied West Bank, a move condemned by Arab League foreign ministers.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 0.82% to $62.89 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 gained 0.96% to $57.95 per barrel.