Asian stocks pay little heed to China/Indonesia data amid trade war concerns
- Asian shares stay mildly negative as upbeat data confronts risk-off sentiment.
- China’s inflation numbers, Indonesia’s Retail Sales beat forecasts.
- US-China trade war fears keep buyers in check ahead of the key events.
Upbeat data from the key Asian economies fail to overcome the fears of a trade war between the United States (US) and China. As a result, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops -0.12% by the press time of early Tuesday. Also following suit is Japan’s NIKKEI that stays unchanged around 23,420.
China’s November month inflation data, namely the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI), came in beyond expectations while Bank Indonesia’s (BI) survey showed upbeat results of Indonesian Retail Sales during October. The data couldn’t please equity buyers in China and Indonesia as SHANGHAI AND HANG SENG flash -0.20% loss by the time of writing.
Market’s risk tone stays sluggish with the US 10-year treasury yields taking rounds to 1.82% while that of Japanese government bonds rises to zero for the first time in nine months.
The reason could be attributed to fears of the US-china trade war as the Trump administration is still on with its threat to levy fresh tariffs on China on December 15 in the absence of a phase-one deal. The odds for the same have been lesser off-late with the latest Global Times piece suggesting a hard reversal of trade trend between the world’s top two economies.
Adding to the risk aversion is cautious sentiment ahead of this week’s key events including United Kingdom’s (UK) general election and monetary policy meetings by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) the European Central Bank (ECB).
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.
