Asian stocks closed significantly lower on Friday (10), after Wall Street suffered a tumble on Thursday and while investors await new data from the US labor market amid concerns about higher US basic interest rates.
Leading the losses in Asia this Thursday, the Hang Seng index fell 3.04% in Hong Kong, to 19,319.92 points, while the Japanese Nikkei fell 1.67% in Tokyo, to 28,143.97 points, the South Korean Kospi retreated 1.01% in Seoul, to 2,394.59 points, and Taiex dropped 1.55% in Taiwan, to 15,526.20 points.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite recorded a low of 1.40%, at 3,230.08 points, and the less comprehensive Shenzhen Composite showed a loss of 1.24%, at 2,087.17 points.
On Thursday, the New York stock exchanges suffered losses of around 1.7% to more than 2%, amid a strong movement of liquidation of stocks in the financial sector, in the face of the prospect that basic interest rates in the US will rise at a faster pace and stay at higher levels for longer than you thought.
With interest rates in mind, investors from the Asian region and other parts of the world will closely follow today the US employment report, the so-called “payroll”, which has a crucial influence on the direction of American monetary policy.
In testimony to the US Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman (Fed, the US central bank), Jerome Powell, warned this week that the Fed is willing to intensify the pace of interest rate hikes if the data warrants it.
He pointed out, however, that the March interest rate decision has not yet been taken and depends on job and inflation numbers to be published.
In Japan, on the other hand, the BoJ – as the local BC is known – once again left its monetary policy unchanged today, in the last decision under the presidency of Haruhiko Kuroda, who will be replaced in April by Kazuo Ueda.
In Oceania, the Australian stock exchange suffered its biggest daily drop since September this Friday, also pressured by Wall Street. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.28% in Sydney to 7,144.70 points.
Source: CNN Brasil
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