Asian Stock Market: Cautiously optimistic amid bond selling, US-China trade jitters

Anil Panchal FXStreet

Asian shares struggle to keep recent gains around two-week top.

Sino-American trade chatters are back in fashion, RBNZ’s Orr weighs on NZX 50.

Aussie Capex, China Industrial Production came in softer for April.

US Treasury yields remain firm, test the market bulls ahead of the key data.

Asian equities remain sidelined around the fortnight top during early Thursday. While portraying the mood MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.30% intraday, stays near the two-week top flashed the previous day, whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 drops 0.50% heading into the European session.

Given the mixed chatters concerning the US-China trade deal and Beijing’s commodity crackdown, not to forget firmer US dollar yields, global markets remain offbeat central bankers keep favoring the easy money policies. While the Fedspeak and ECB comments straightaway rejects tapering concerns, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is likely not to interfere even as the domestic currency jumps to a multi-month high.

Elsewhere, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Governor Adrian Orr reiterated the previous day’s bullish bias and readiness to rake hike in late 2022, which in turn dragged the NZX 50 for one more day, down 1.07% intraday by the press time. On the contrary, Australia’s ASX 200 prints mild gains as downbeat data from home and abroad favor easy money policies.

South Korea’s KOSPI reacts to the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) status-quo with mild losses but Indonesia’s IDX Composite becomes the biggest gainer of the day, up 1.25% on a day, amid upbeat Money Supply Growth data and hopes of economic recovery.

India’s BSE Sensex struggles for a clear direction as hopes of stimulus battle with a slower pace of vaccinations and allegations of red tape as the pandemic effects ease of late.

On a broader front, the S&P 500 Futures drop 0.15% amid firmer US Treasury yields and expectations of strong US economics favoring the short-term up-move in inflation.

Moving on, US Durable Goods Orders and Fedspeak can entertain investors ahead of Friday’s key Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index data.

Read: US Durable Goods Orders April Preview: Jobs should equal spending

Author

Anil Panchal

FXStreet

Anil Panchal has nearly 15 years of experience in tracking financial markets. With a keen interest in macroeconomics, Anil aptly tracks global news/updates and stays well-informed about the global financial moves and their implications.

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