Asian Stocks Fall, Yen Steady After Weakenin
Equities in Asia fell while the yen steadied along with government bonds after a selloff on Wednesday as traders scaled back bets on a U.S. interest rate cut.
Japanese, South Korean and Australian stocks as well as futures for Hong Kong all fell on Thursday after the S&P 500 dropped 0.9% on Wednesday. The yen firmed slightly after touching its weakest level against the U.S. dollar since July.
Futures for the Nasdaq 100 rose during Thursday’s Asian trade, paring a decline for the underlying benchmark the previous day, after strong earnings from Tesla Inc. provided support for technology stocks. Government bonds opened little changed in Asia after the 10-year yield rose four basis points on Wednesday to its highest in nearly three months.
Market players scaled back bets on the pace of Fed rate cuts, with swap traders less than 100% certain of a rate cut during the two remaining policy meetings this year. The term premium on the 10-year Treasury note — an expression of investors’ demand for extra yield from owning the debt rather than rolling over shorter-term securities — also hit its highest since November.
Source: Bloomberg
