Asian shares tread cautiously before key events

Asian stocks inched cautiously higher on Wednesday, taking their cue from Wall Street ahead of key events including Chinese economic data, a Bank of Japan policy decision and congressional testimony by the U.S. Federal Reserve chief. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index advanced 0.5 percent in early trade. The Chinese data will be followed by the Bank of Japan's regular policy decision, likely to be out b