Asian Stock Market: Trades mixed as China data battles firm Treasury yields
- Asian stocks struggle to justify hopes of faster economic recovery amid reflation fears.
- China’s Industrial Production, Retail Sales rallied in January-February but couldn’t lift the stocks.
- RBA’s Lowe, US Treasury Secretary Yellen tried to placate bond bears.
- US President Joe Biden’s speech will be the key ahead of Fed.
Asian stocks dribble despite faster recovery claims from the US and China tried to appease bulls during early Monday. The reason could be traced from the US Treasury yields that stay firm nearly multi-month tops marked on Friday.
Amid these plays, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan drops 0.30% whereas Japan’s Nikkei rises 0.25% by the press time.
Be it US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments or strong Retail Sales and Industrial Production data from China, signals the world’s top two economies have been optimistic off-late. However, the liquidity infusion can’t reject fears of the heating economy and required tapering of the Quantitative Easing (QE).
Elsewhere, US President Joe Biden welcomed initial discussions with the allies in Asia-Pacific during the latest summit. Though, the US Secretary of State’s visit to Asia, starting with Japan, seems to weigh on the risks amid a row over China’s direction to change Hong Kong laws and the resulted global ire. The same weighs on the Chinese stocks that have been trying to stabilize after the last week’s equity rout.
Australia’s ASX 200 struggles to cheer RBA Governor Philip Lowe’s cautious optimism and China data whereas New Zealand’s NZX 50 gains over 1.0% as the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) revised up growth forecasts.
Looking forward, Indonesia’s IDX Composite drops 0.44% amid mixed trade data whereas South Korea’s KOSPI prints mild losses and India’s BSE Sensex drops over 1.00% amid risk of virus resurgence and cautiousness sentient ahead of the key data.
On a broader scale, S&P 500 Futures trim early Asian gains while the US 10-year Treasury yields stay firmer around 1.63%, near February 2020 high flashed on Friday, by the press time.
Moving on, US President Joe Biden’s speech, up for publishing around 17:45 GMT, will be the key to watch but nothing more important than this week’s Fed meeting.