Asian equities ahead of key US inflation data Reuters

Author: Alun John

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell and the dollar held steady on Friday as traders moved away from risky assets as concerns over COVID-19 renewed and US Federal Reserve inflation figures could set the direction for Federal Reserve rates.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific equities index fell 0.4% and 0.5% outside Japan.

Overnight losses fell by 0.72% and fell by 1.71%. It rose 0.14% in Asian hours.[.N]

Shares and risk-supported currencies performed well earlier in the week, with the regional benchmark of the MSCI posting the best two-month day on Tuesday, aided by signs of the new coronary virus Omicron strain not being as economically damaging as previously feared.

“Then, as we reached the end of the week, Europe was much clearer that it was moving to a kind of blocking light and that cases were rising, and the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is starting to rise. A little bit,” said Rob Carnell. , ING Pacific Head of Research.

“It also makes a bit of a sense that ‘let’s not be too risky on the table for the weekend.’

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) is due to arrive later on Friday in November, and a Reuters survey of economists expects a year-on-year rise of 6.8%, up from 6.2% in October, the fastest gain in 31 years.

Most likely, the above surprise will be interpreted as a case of a faster Fed taper and a faster rise in interest rates.

Shares of China’s Evergrande Group lost 1.5% after Fitch fell to its default position.

The Hong Kong benchmark lost 0.24%, but the global market has been much less concerned with the recent developments in the long-running Evergrande saga than a few months ago.

“This issue has been going on for two and a half months now, and the markets don’t seem so confused because it seems very likely that Evergrander’s offshore debt recovery will be very likely,” said AMP (OTC) Chief Strategy Officer Shane Oliver. 🙂 Capital.

In China, too, the central bank on Thursday ordered financial institutions to hold more foreign currency in reserves for the second time this year, which the markets interpreted as an attempt to slow the recent rapid appreciation of the yuan.

The yuan lost about half a percent in offshore trade on Thursday, weakening further to 6,385 on Friday.

Other currency movements coincided with a broad-risk mood. The dollar held steady, with the euro falling 0.4% overnight under pressure as the dollar fell.

US Treasury yields fell slightly overnight, the latest benchmark of 1.4888%.

Oil also slipped. It fell 0.5% to $ 70.56 a barrel. It fell 0.47% to $ 74.08, while gold rose as a concern. The spot price rose 0.2% to $ 1777.8 an ounce.[GOL/][O/R]