Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Asian markets flat as investors await US inflation data

Posted by Anonymous at 09:55 Labels:

Asian equity markets were mostly flat on Tuesday as market participants prepared for the release of key inflation data in the United States to assess expectations for interest rate hikes.

Last week, speculation that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates four times in 2018 declined sharply as the US Labor Department exposed a slowdown in wages growth.

Average hourly wages growth came out below estimation, with a 0.1 percent increase in February, compared to a 0.2 percent build seen.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 moved up and down the breakeven line, with no major data released in Asian hours. The Tertiary industry activity index, which gauges changes in the total value of services acquired by businesses, dropped 0.06 percent against an estimated fall of 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Kospi was trading 0.14 percent into green territory, with Posco adding 0.28 percent, while Hyundai Steel felt by nearly one percent on concerns over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium.

<<< Asian Stock Indexes>>>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Australia ASX S&P                -24.30             -0.40%            6,077.10
Shanghai Composite             -7.40               -0.22%            3,319.30
Hong Kong Hang Seng          -61.41             -0.19%            31,532.92
Japan Nikkei 225                   +144.07          +0.66%           21,968.10
Taiwan TSEC 50 Index          +93.53            +0.85%           11,095.63

<<< Next in Europe >>>

The ZEW economic sentiment index for March in Germany and in the Eurozone will be released as of 10:00 GMT. A meeting of EU Finance Ministers is also scheduled this morning.

<<< Next in the United States >>>

The US consumer price index for February will be out at 12:30 GMT, with a 0.2 percent build seen from a prior month 0.5 percent increase.

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )