Asian markets retreat on fears of inflation and rising interest rates



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BANGKOK – Stocks fell in Asia on Wednesday as investors weighed the possibility that inflation would prompt central banks to adjust their extremely low interest rate policies.

Hang Seng HSI from Hong Kong,
-2.99%
led the decline, losing 2%. Tokyo Nikkei 225 NIK,
-1.61%
paid 0.9% and in Seoul the Kospi 180721,
-2.45%
edged down 0.9%. Australian S & P / ASX 200 XJO,
-0.90%
lost 1%, while the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP index,
-1.99%
dropped 1.5%. Actions won in Singapore STI,
+ 1.39%,
but slipped to Taiwan Y9999,
-1.40%
and Indonesia JAKIDX,
-0.35%.

Investors remain increasingly focused on a surge in bond yields and its impact on equity valuations.

The large number of stimulus packages injected into economies was a factor pushing bond yields higher, prompting some investors to take a break as it rekindles inflation concerns that have been almost non-existent since. over a decade.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bill, which recently climbed, held steady at 1.34% on Wednesday.

When bond yields rise, stock prices tend to be negatively affected because investors are spending more and more of their money on the more stable stream of income that bonds provide.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell told Congress on Tuesday that the Fed saw no need to change its policy of keeping interest rates very low, noting that the economic recovery “remains uneven and far away to be complete ”.

The message seemed to be muffled in Asia.

“Rising borrowing costs remain the most prevalent problem, although Fed Powell’s conciliatory remarks helped stop US stocks from falling on Tuesday,” IG’s Jingyi Pan said in a comment.

However, “Despite the reassuring comments about the rate cut from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Asian markets continued to be concerned about rising bond yields,” Pan said.

A wave of late-afternoon buying on Wall Street on Tuesday helped reverse most tech-driven selling, pushing the S&P 500 SPX,
+ 0.13%
in his first win after a five-day losing streak.

The benchmark index posted a gain of 0.1% to 3,881.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
+ 0.05%
also rose 0.1%, to 31,537.35. The Nasdaq COMP,
-0.50%
lost 0.5% to 13,465.20. The indices were at record levels less than two weeks ago.

In the other operations, the American benchmark crude oil CLJ21,
-0.39%
lost 52 cents to $ 61.15 a barrel in e-commerce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 3 cents Tuesday to $ 61.67 a barrel. Brent crude BRNJ21,
-0.09%,
the international standard, lost 39 cents to $ 64.09 a barrel.

The US dollar USDJPY,
+ 0.39%
rose to 105.44 Japanese yen from 105.24 yen on Tuesday night.

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