On Tuesday, Asia-Pacific markets saw shares tumble for the most part, after the S&P 500 had fallen overnight and entered bear market territory. However, Mainland China stocks were able to buck the regional trend, as they made a recovery from the losses in previous sessions.
Chinese indexes rise, others fall
Both the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component were able to record gains for the day of about 1.02% and 0.204%, respectively. This saw them close at a value of 3,288.91 and 12,023.79. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was swinging between positive and negative territory and it closed the day with a fall of 0.15%. As for shares of Alibaba listed in Hong Kong, they were down by 2.7%.
Most of the remaining markets in the region were also trading in negative territory. There was a 1.32% decline in the Japanese Nikkei 225, as it closed the day at 26,629.86. As for the Topex index, it had fallen by 1.19% to close the day at 1,878.45. There was also a 0.46% fall recorded in the Kospi index of South Korea, as it closed the day at 2,492.97.
The worst performance in the region was seen in Australia. After a holiday on Monday, the S&P/ASX 200 index returned and ended the day down by 3.55%, which saw it close at 6,686. There was also a 0.6% fall recorded in the MSCI’s broadest index of shares in Asia-Pacific, with the exclusion of Japan.
Other markets suffer
Tuesday was yet another day of sell-offs in the crypto industry, as Bitcoin even went below the $21,000 mark at one point. However, the largest crypto in the world was able to make a slight recovery from its losses earlier. Last, it was seen trading at a value of $21,817 on Tuesday.
Some of the earlier gains that US Treasury yields had seen were also given back. The 10-year benchmark Treasury bond saw its yield make the biggest movement after March 2020. It was last standing at 3.299%. There was also a big jump in the 2-year rate, as it climbed to 3.284%. Prices and yields move inversely.
There had been an inversion in the day, as the 2-year yield had climbed higher than the 10-year one. This measure is closely monitored by traders because it can give signs of recession. Overnight, there was a 4% decline in the S&P 500, which pushed it into bear market territory. There were big declines in other index as well, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 2.79% and Nasdaq Composite declining by 4.68%.
Fed expectations
Investors are now bracing for a more aggressive hike in the interest rates by the Fed due to the higher inflation data on Friday. There is now a possibility that the interest rate will go up by 75 basis points instead of 50 basis points, as predicted before. This is because if the Federal Reserve does not control inflation right now, it could have a problem for a long time.
