EQUITIES
Most Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Tuesday after heavy losses overnight on Wall Street.
Returning to trade after a holiday on Monday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lead losses among the region’s major markets as it fell 2.83% by Tuesday afternoon. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech firms dropped, with Tencent declining 3.67% while Alibaba shed 5.87% and NetEase fell 4.39%. The Hang Seng Tech index slipped 4.7%.
Technology shares elsewhere in Asia-Pacific also declined in Tuesday trade, largely mirroring losses of the Nasdaq overnight. Shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group fell 2.65%. South Korea’s Kakao lost 0.24% while Krafton dropped 2.39%.
In the broader markets, the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.87%, the South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.76% and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 1.22%.
Mainland Chinese stocks bucked the overall trend and outperformed the broader region. The Shanghai Composite recovered from earlier losses to rise 0.17%.
Overnight on Wall Street, major indexes saw a substantial loss. The S&P 500 slipping 3.2% to 3,991.24 — falling below the 4,000 level for the first time in more than a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.99%, to 32,245.70, and Nasdaq Composite dropping 4.29% overnight to 11,623.25 in a sell-off led by mega-cap growth stocks.
OIL
Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday, as COVID-19 lockdowns in China continued and potential economic ructions in Europe fed worries about the demand outlook.
Brent crude fell 0.6%, to $104.63 per barrel, while U.S. WTI crude fell 0.5%, to $101.87 a barrel. Both benchmarks slumped more than 5% in the previous session, though still up about 35% so far this year.
CURRENCIES
The dollar index was steady at 103.567 on Tuesday, having risen as high as 104.19 overnight, a fresh 20-year peak.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields were at 3.036%, easing off the 3-1/2 year high in the previous session, as traders braced for consumer price data and the auction of $103 billion in U.S. government debt this week. The greenback has risen for five straight weeks along with U.S. Treasury yields.
Commodity-linked currencies including the Australian and Canadian currencies took a beating as oil prices fell.
Bitcoin fell below $30,000 for the first time since July 2021, before edged a little higher around $31,288.
GOLD
Gold prices edged higher on Tuesday on slight decline in U.S. Treasury yields and dollar. Spot gold was up 0.46% at $1,862.70 per ounce, and U.S. gold futures added 0.26% to $1,863.40.
Spot silver gained 0.4% to $21.87 per ounce, platinum dipped 0.1% to $954.98, and palladium rose 0.5% to $2,107.80.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Asian shares fell to their lowest in nearly two years on Tuesday, as investors shed riskier assets on worries about higher interest rates and their impact on economic growth. Further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in China also raised pressure.
Growth worries resurfaced after central banks in the U.S., Britain and Australia raised interest rates last week and investors girded for more tightening as policymakers fight soaring inflation.
Investors are awaited on the U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday. The CPI data could fuel even more aggressive bets, especially if the pace of headline price rises does not fall to 8.1% as expected.
Investors focused China's zero-COVID policy. Shanghai authorities were tightening the city-wide COVID-19 lockdown for 25 million residents they imposed more than a month ago, prolonging into late-May, feeding concerns about supply chain problems for global technology companies that manufacture in China.
