Asian shares fall ahead of US CPI, crypto concerns rise. Asian stock markets were tense on Thursday and the dollar held on overnight gains ahead of a major test of US consumer inflation reports, while market sentiment took a dive as a potential collapse of a major crypto exchange spooked investors.
With no final results available from the US midterm elections, investors were turning to inflation data later in the day, which are expected to show a 0.5% and 6.5% decline in both monthly and annual key numbers for October. Chances are. According to a Reuters poll, respectively.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 0.6% in early trade, led by outliers in China’s bluechips (.CSI300) and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (.HSI).
Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) fell 1%.
China is again battling a COVID surge, with thousands of cases reported in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou. Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) plans to update its fourth-quarter outlook on Thursday as strict COVID restrictions remain in place despite a lockdown at its flagship plant in China.
Elsewhere, the focus was entirely on inflation.
“While inflation has peaked globally, in our view, the cooling is not sufficient or broad-based to bring rate hike cycles to a solid conclusion,” said analysts at JPMorgan.
Still, some central banks in both developed and emerging markets were sluggish as they were concerned about monetary tightening pushing economic growth down, analysts said.
Investors in the futures market currently expect the target US federal funds rate to be around 5.1% by next June, and the possibility of an increase of 50 or 75 basis points tilted in favor of a half-point increase next month. Is.
Read more: Asian Stocks Stall, Dollar Wallops Pound and Yen
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks fell as Republican gains in the midterm elections appeared modest than some expected. Republicans were still in favor of winning control of the House of Representatives but the major races were too close to the call. read more
In the crypto world, bitcoin regained some ground in early trading on Thursday, after falling to its lowest level since late 2020 for two straight sessions.
The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, said late Wednesday that it has decided not to acquire smaller rival FTX, which is battling a severe liquidity crisis and facing bankruptcy without more capital.
“You can’t deny the growing correlation between bitcoin and riskier assets. FTX News is having a big impact on asset prices,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
“Bitcoin spillovers are not negligible, and given how widely held crypto coins are, this could mean more forced liquidations of other assets to cover margin calls as investors with long positions tend to be larger. The scale was wrong.”
The US dollar maintained most of its gains overnight against a basket of currencies on Thursday.
Sterling rose 0.2% against the greenback, after losing 1.6% in the previous session.
US Treasury yields were lower on Thursday.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year notes declined by 6 basis points to 4.0866%, while the yield on the two-year notes declined by 5 basis points to 4.5732%.
In commodities, oil prices continued to fall on Thursday, after falling nearly 3% in the previous session on fears of rising demand from China and rising US crude stocks.
US crude oil futures fell 0.3% to $85.59 a barrel, while Brent crude futures fell by a similar margin to $92.37.
Gold was slightly changed, the spot price was $ 1705.92 an ounce.