Asian stocks sink as Fed minutes fuel rate hike bets
Investing.com — Most Asian stocks fell on Thursday, tracking a decline in U.S. markets as the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting presented a hawkish outlook, while weak economic signals and fears of a Sino-U.S. trade war also weighed.
Wall Street indexes closed lower overnight as the minutes of the Fed’s June meeting showed that nearly all of its members supported more rate hikes in the coming months.
Technology-heavy indexes were pressured by hawkish signals from the Fed, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 2.5%, while South Korea’s KOSPI and the Taiwan Weighted index shed 0.3% and 1.2%, respectively.
Japanese stocks were among the biggest decliners for the day, with the Nikkei 225 down 1.3%, while the TOPIX fell 0.8%. Traders used the negative sentiment to further lock in profits in local stocks, after the Nikkei and TOPIX surged to 33-year highs in June.
Australia’s ASX 200 sank 1.2%, hit by concerns over slowing economic growth in major export destination China. Australian trade data released on Thursday furthered this notion, showing a slowdown in the country’s top metal exports to China.
But Australia’s trade surplus still recovered from nine-month lows.
Singapore-traded futures for India's Nifty 50 index pointed to a weaker open, after the Nifty surged to record highs this week, vastly outpacing its Asian peers.
Losses in China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes were relatively lesser than their Asian peers, with the two down about 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.
A swathe of weak economic readings from the country over the past week saw traders ramping up their hopes for more stimulus measures from Beijing, as the government struggles to shore up a slowing economic recovery.
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