- Asia-Pacific equities track Wall Street losses amid fears of inflation, covid and geopolitics.
- Nikkei 225 drops back towards 16-month low after rising the most since June 2020, Chinese stocks tumbled on delisting fears.
- Mixed concerns over Russia-Ukraine join hawkish monetary policy action to weigh on equities.
- UN Security Council, US data may entertain traders amid market’s indecision.
Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region see the red as geopolitical fears join monetary policy contraction, as well as covid fears, to provide a triple whammy of attacks on the market sentiment.
While portraying the mood, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan drops over 2.0% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 print 2.5% daily loss heading into Friday’s European session.
The European Central Bank’s (ECB) hawkish moves joined hopes of faster rate-hikes elsewhere to weigh on the risk catalysts like Nikkei 225. On the same line, Chinese equities dropped on concerns of China-based firms’ delisting. Also challenging stocks from China are the latest covid numbers as Beijing reports the highest daily infections in two years.
Australia’s ASX 200 drop near 1.0% as Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe repeats rate-hike calls whereas New Zealand’s NZX 50 declined 1.5% at the latest.
It’s worth noting that prices of gold and crude remain on the back foot while the US Dollar Index (DXY) also bears the burden of downbeat yields. Further, the S&P 500 Futures drop 0.50% even as the US Senate passes a $13.6B package to help Ukraine and a $1.5 trillion bill to avoid looming government shutdown.
Elsewhere, Indonesia’s IDX Composite and South Korea’s KOSPI follow the downtrend while India’s BSE Sensex bucks the trend with mild gains as the ruling party wins in major state elections.
Looking forward, the UN meeting and updates from Ukraine could keep the driver’s seat while the US Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for March, expected 61.3 versus 62.8, will also be important to watch for market directions.
