Asian stocks on Friday followed overnight losses in US peers as traders weighed the economic threat of virus restrictions against optimism about the efficacy of vaccines.
Chinese markets are in investors’ focus after China Evergrande Group (恆大集團) and Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd (佳兆業集團) officially defaulted on their US dollar debt.
Evergrande shares fell about 2 percent. Kaisa’s shares, which are also traded in Hong Kong, remained suspended.
The TAIEX fell 0.49 percent to 17,826.26 points on Friday, but added 0.73 percent for the week.
Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 on Friday dropped 0.4 percent, paring its weekly gain to 1.6 percent.
The KOSPI in Seoul declined 0.6 percent on Friday, but rose 1.4 percent for the week.
Tokyo stocks closed lower on Friday after Wall Street snapped a three-day rally and investors awaited a key US inflation report due later in the day.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index fell 1 percent, or 287.70 points, to 28,437.77, for a weekly gain of 1.46 percent.
The broader TOPIX slipped 0.77 percent, or 15.31 points, to 1,975.48 for a weekly gain of 0.9 percent.
The Hang Seng Index fell 1.1 percent to 23,995.72, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.9 percent to 8,578.33 points.
For the week, the Hang Seng Index edged 1 percent higher, while the China Enterprises Index added 1.5 percent.
Investors are mulling the cost to contain the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 amid mounting concern it would crimp the economic rebound. A study has found Omicron is 4.2 times more transmissible than the Delta variant in its early stages.
The US Department of Labor on Friday reported the most rapid inflation in nearly 40 years, with the consumer price index rising 6.8 percent last month from a year earlier.
The inflation gauge climbed 0.8 percent in October, exceeding forecasts and extending a trend of sizable increases that began earlier this year
“Various FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] participants, including [Fed] Chair [Jerome] Powell, have signaled a hawkish shift in their policy stance, catalyzed by increasing discomfort with elevated inflation against a backdrop of robust growth and ongoing strengthening in labor markets conditions,” Morgan Stanley economists and strategists, including Ellen Zentner, wrote in a note on Thursday.
“We revise our Fed call and now expect the FOMC to begin raising rates in Sept. 2022 — two quarters earlier than our prior forecast,” they said.
The US and the EU were yesterday to announce a joint effort aimed at identifying semiconductor supply disruptions as well as countering Russian disinformation, officials said. Top US officials are visiting the French scientific hub of Saclay for a meetup of the Trade and Technology Council, created last year as China increasingly exerts its technology clout. US officials acknowledged that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has broadened the council’s scope, but said the Western bloc still has its eye on competition from China. The two sides will announce an “early warning system” for semiconductors supply disruptions, hoping to avoid excessive competition between Western powers
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday introduced Toyota Motor Corp’s first all-electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), the bZ4X, joining rivals in vying for a share of the nation’s fast-growing electric vehicle market. Starting today, the bZ4X, with a price tag of NT$1.599 million (US$53,780), would be available for online purchase only and customers need to download a special app to place orders, Hotai said. Hotai has received 300 of the electric SUVs, it said, adding that it is not enough to meet robust market demand. A total of 229 electric vehicles were sold in the
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has made further progress in its expansion into semiconductor manufacturing as its subsidiary teams up with Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) to build a 12-inch wafer fab in Malaysia. Big Innovation Holdings Ltd (BIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hon Hai, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DNeX to collaborate on establishing and operating the semiconductor fab in the Southeastern Asian country, it said in a statement released by DNeX on its Web site. The fab is expected to produce 40,000 12-inch wafers per month, deploying 28-nanometer and 40-nanometer process technologies, the statement said. Under
BUYERS BATTLING: While China Steel expects demand to rise in the second half, the World Steel Association reduced its global demand forecast to 0.4% annual growth China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday said it would cut domestic steel prices by 2.1 percent on average for delivery next month in response to a brief slowdown in steel demand and to help customers mitigate mounting manufacturing costs caused by geopolitical issues. However, the company said it expects steel demand to pick up in the second half of the year, benefiting from infrastructure programs in China, as lockdowns there could gradually be lifted later this year, as well as post-war reconstruction projects, if Russia’s war in Ukraine stabilizes. The Kaohsiung-based company’s move matches its Chinese counterparts’ recent
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