SINGAPORE, March 6 (Reuters) - Asian equities eased on

Wednesday in cautious trading, with Chinese stocks slipping as

the lack of big stimulus measures from Beijing disappointed some

investors, while gold and bitcoin eased after hitting record

highs.

Traders are hesitant to place major bets ahead of

congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

that will be parsed to gauge if the U.S. central bank is ready

to start cutting rates.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

was 0.21% lower. Japan's Nikkei fell

0.20% as investors took some profit after the index hit record

peaks this week.

Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday, a day after Beijing set a

widely expected 5% growth target for 2024 at a parliament

meeting that lacked major stimulus measures.

The blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.42% while Hong

Kong's benchmark Hang Seng was 0.73% higher.

"The 2024 economic targets still show officials are

unwilling to quickly reflate the economy given concerns about

excessive debt and the weakness of the yuan," said Mansoor

Mohi-uddin, chief economist at the Bank of Singapore.

"But the report does signal policymakers are stepping up

efforts to put a floor under China's growth and should thus

support investor sentiment in 2024."

Overnight, Wall Street's three major indexes retreated more

than 1%, with weakness in megacap growth companies such as Apple ( AAPL )

and the chip sector weighing most on the tech-heavy

Nasdaq.

E-mini futures for the S&P 500 was up 0.01%.

Data on Tuesday showed a waning expansion of the U.S.

services sector, and a steeper-than-expected drop in new factory

orders, with the spotlight firmly on payrolls data later in the

week.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields steadied

in Asian hours and was last at 4.162%, having dipped to a

one-month low of 4.112% in the previous session after weak data.

Traders are scouring U.S. economic data and policymakers

speeches to gauge when the Fed would start cutting rates.

Markets are pricing in a 68% chance of the Fed starting its

easing cycle in June, CME FedWatch tool showed. They have priced

in 88 basis points of cuts this year.

That makes Powell's appearance on Wednesday a significant

event but analysts expect the Fed Chair to stick to his message.

"It seems unlikely that Powell will change the message he

and his colleagues have been giving recently, which is that they

are in no rush to cut rates and want more certainty that

inflation is tamed before doing so," ING economists said in a

note.

In the currency market, the Japanese yen

strengthened 0.05% to 149.99 per dollar, while euro

last bought $1.0846 ahead of policy decision from the European

Central bank on Thursday.

The ECB is widely expected to leave interest rates at a

record 4% but the focus will be on clues about when rates might

start to fall in the wake of stubborn inflation.

Data last week showed euro zone inflation dipped in February

but underlying price growth remained stubbornly high, adding to

the case for the ECB to hold rates at record highs a bit longer

before starting to ease policy towards mid-year.

Markets are pricing in 90 basis points of cuts from ECB this

year.

In the cryptocurrency world, bitcoin was last at

$63,436, having breached a record high of $69,202 in the

previous session.

Spot gold eased 0.1% to $2,125.36 an ounce after

touching all-time high of $2,141.59 on Tuesday.

U.S. crude fell 0.1% to $78.07 per barrel and Brent

was at $81.93, down 0.13% on the day.

(Editing by Himani Sarkar)