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"Bloomberg: The Asia Trade" brings you everything you need to know to get ahead as the trading day begins in Asia. Bloomberg TV is live from Tokyo and Sydney with Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watts, getting insight and analysis from newsmakers and industry leaders on the biggest stories shaping global markets.

Japanese retail investors are betting that ​recent gains in the yen will be short-lived, maintaining significant short positions that could ‌increase volatility in currency markets.

Most respondents expect the BOJ to hike this week by 25 basis points, citing higher inflation, higher wages, and pressure from the U.S. government.  A hike would signal an acceleration of the tightening cycle, faster than the six-month interval the Bank has been following.

Asian stocks diverged on Tuesday as South Korea's KOSPI struggled to shake off pressure on semiconductor shares while Japan's Nikkei 225 recovered, leaving the region's two most AI-sensitive markets moving in opposite directions ahead of key US and Japanese rate decisions. The KOSPI fell as much as 0.76% in early Seoul trading before paring most of the decline, extending a difficult stretch after Monday's sharp…

The artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor trades are garnering plenty of limelight this year and when investors evaluate those themes relating to ex-US equities, their attention largely shifts to China, South Korea and Taiwan. However, there's another Asia-Pacific dynamo on the AI front, and it's a familiar one: Japan.