Asian stocks track Wall St losses amid doubts over early rate cuts
Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, tracking steep overnight losses on Wall Street as markets second-guessed expectations for early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, especially before more key economic cues this week.
Concerns over slowing growth in China remained in play, following weak official purchasing managers index readings released earlier this week. The Chinese government also recently downgraded its gross domestic product figure for 2022, which could herald a weak reading for 2023.
China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 fell 0.2% and remained close to a five-year low, while the Shanghai Composite index traded sideways. Both indexes logged heavy losses in 2023.
Broader Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, with the technology sector seeing the heaviest losses following a rout in U.S. majors.
Tech-heavy indexes were the worst performers in Asia. South Korea’s KOSPI slid 1.7%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 1.1%.
Losses in major Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) suppliers also weighed on Asian bourses, after Barclays downgraded the iPhone maker citing a looming slowdown in device sales.
Heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930), AAC Technologies (OTC:AACAY) Holdings Inc (HK:2018) and SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) fell between 2% and 3%, while TSMC (TW:2330) (NYSE:TSM)- the world’s biggest contract chipmaker- sank 2.4% in Taiwan trade.
Tech stocks were also pressured by anticipation of the minutes of the Fed’s December meeting, which were due later on Wednesday.
Analysts warned that the minutes may not strike as dovish a chord as markets were hoping. While the central bank had signaled rate cuts in 2024, it had given scant cues on the timing of said cuts.
Fed officials also recently warned
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