Asian Shares Lower as Investors Await Fed Chair’s Speech

Friday, March 3, 2017 3:26 am | 2 Minute Read

A man (R) cleans electronic boards showing the Japan’s Nikkei average, the exchange rate between Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar and stock quotation outside a brokerage in Tokyo. (Reuters/Issei Kato)

Asian shares slipped Friday as investors awaited a speech by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen later in the day. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.3 percent on worries that deployment of a U.S. missile defense system will hurt ties with China, its largest trading partner.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 percent to 19,463.66 while South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.3 percent to 2,074.53. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.6 percent to 23,581.09 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4 percent to 3,217.98. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9 percent to 5,727.00. Stocks in Taiwan, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries were also lower.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to give a speech in Chicago later Friday. Her speech, along with jobs data next week, will give more clues to investors on the Fed’s movement. Expectations are high that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month. U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest level in decades last week, strengthening the belief that the central bank is moving closer to achieving its full employment and inflation targets, analysts said.

U.S. stocks pulled back from record highs on Thursday as pushed down by banks and other financial companies. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.5 percent to 21,002.97. Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.6 percent to 2,381.92. The Nasdaq composite index slid 0.7 percent to 5,861.22.

“U.S. markets were seen snapping back into a state of caution after touching fresh highs on Wednesday. Asian markets look set to step in line with overnight markets, joining the slide,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a commentary. She said investors were focusing on Yellen’s speech.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 6 cents to $52.67 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.22, or 2.3 percent, to close at $52.61 a barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 2 cents to $55.10 a barrel.

The dollar fell to 114.13 yen from 114.42 yen. The euro rose to $1.0520 from $1.0508.

To Read The Full Story