Asian stock market: IMF’s warning adds strength to risk aversion

Asian equities remain under pressure amid the coronavirus-led risk-off.
IMF predicts Asia-Pacific growth to stall for the first time in 60 years.
Mixed catalysts from Australian, New Zealand and Japan confuse traders.

Asian shares traders stay depressed as global risk aversion wave continues to spread during the early Wednesday. The key catalysts among them are the IMF’s warning to Asia-Pacific nations, via growth forecasts, as well as the US coronavirus data.

During early-Asia, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) said that Asia-Pacific growth in 2020 will grind to a halt for the first time in 60 years. The global leader previously cited fears of a global recession.

On the other hand, the US registers the single-day record increase in the virus death toll by 2,371 to 30,817, per Reuters. Further, the news that China’s local infections rise also cited the risk of resurgence.

Elsewhere, Japan’s PM got funds for his earlier announced 100,000 Japanese yen cash handouts while Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand failed to defy the fears despite giving post-lockdown hints.

That said, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan register 0.70% losses with Japan’s NIKKEI down 1.4% to 19,250 by the press time. Further, equities in Australia and New Zealand flash mixed signals with the former putting on more than 1.0% losses whereas the later gains around 0.30% as per the key benchmarks.

Moving on, shares in China and India are also struggling for direction amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and expectations of further measures from the authorities.

It’s worth mentioning that the US 10-year Treasury yields remain mostly unchanged around 0.64% after Wall Street closed in red the previous day. Additionally, the US stock futures portray the risk-off with mild losses near 0.20% by the time of writing.

Traders are likely to keep eyes on the virus updates ahead of the heavy economic docket wherein the US Jobless Claims will be the key to follow.

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