Asian Stock Market: Bulls and bears jostle between Fed, ECB

Asian shares edge higher as Treasury yields takes a back seat despite the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) hawkish announcements. The traders’ indecision could also be linked to the cautious sentiment ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy meeting and geopolitical fears emanating from China, not to forget Omicron woes.

Read: Fed Quick Analysis: Hawks shift to three hikes in 2022, King dollar to end 2021 on top

While portraying the mood, the MSCI’s index of Asia ex-Japan shares drops 0.05% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 rises 1.75% by the press time.

Australia’s ASX 200 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 dropped 0.50% and 0.30% at the latest as New Zealand (NZ) reports the first Omicron case whereas Australia’s employment data for November failed to back the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe’s dovish remarks. Earlier in the day, NZ Q3 GDP recently eased below -4.5% expectations to -3.7% on QoQ whereas the yearly growth figures came in -0.3% versus -1.6% forecast and +17.9% revised prior.

Elsewhere, stocks in China are mostly down as escalating tussles between Beijing and Washington drowns technology shares. The US push for the Uyghur Bill and Beijing’s rush to control data companies are the latest factors portraying the cold war.

On a different page, South Korea’s KOSPI and Hong Kong’s Hang Sang track China while Indonesia’s IDX Composite and India’s BSE Sensex print mild gains following stock futures in the West.

It’s worth noting that the prices of oil and gold keep the post-Fed rebound whereas the US Treasury yields remain lackluster by the press time.

Moving on, preliminary PMI data for December may offer intermediate moves to the markets but major attention will be given to the monetary policy meeting of the ECB and the BOE for clear direction.