Asian Stocks Rally Strongly as Fed Hike, Market Sentiments Improve

On Thursday, 17 March 2022, Hong Kong and Japan led a hike in regional shares, joining Wall Street’s rally overnight as estimated risks from China’s falling market and Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy to the Russia war became less gloomy.

Continue reading this blog to know about the Asian markets, world news, stock market today, and more!

What Is the Impact of Fed’s Policy?

Once the Fed’s policy rate increased for the first time after 2018, treasury yields soothed a bit post spiking to around 3-year highs overnight, coupled with shorter-end yields increasing more to straighten the market curve.

To aggressively suppress inflation, the Fed hiked rates by a predictable quarter-point and mimicked equal hikes for the remaining months of 2022.

The oil faired well south of the current multi-year-hikes, and the safe-haven dollar remained stuck amidst signals of progress in Ukraine and Russia talks to end the invasion.

What about the Global Benchmarks?

Though investors worry about China’s slowdown due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, strong restrictive measures have been proposed to support the market.

On Thursday, 17 March 2022, Japan’s Nikkei surged 3% and reached a 2-week high, whereas South Korea’s Kospi hiked 1.6%. Further, Australia’s benchmark put forth 1.4%. Hang Seng of Hong Kong jumped 5.2%, while China’s blue chips surged 2.1%.

At the restart, US stock futures dropped 0.3%, and the S&P 500 surged 2.2% overnight. The dollar index scrutinizes the currency against 6 prominent peers, dropping an extra 0.12% to nearly 98.360 post-slipping 0.47% on Wednesday, 16 March 2022.

How Is the Global Crude Oil Business Performing?

On Thursday, crude oil snicked higher after the IEA (International Energy Agency) stated that a fall in crude oil demand because of higher prices couldn’t offset Russian oil supplies blockage.

Brent crude futures surged around 0.67% or 66 cents to $98.68 each barrel, relative to the present peak of nearly $129.30. Further, US WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude rises 0.86% or 84 cents to $95.86 per barrel.

Parting Words

Despite the Federal Reserve’s hawkish trend, the stock market remained strong. This emphasizes that the global economy has the potential to withstand surges.

With Ukraine-Russia peace talks, there’s an improvement in stock market sentiments. In addition, China, amidst its COVID-19 outbreak, has been trying hard to support capital markets and economic growth.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How did the Japanese and Australian government bonds perform today?

On Thursday, 17 March 2022, government bond yields in Japan and Australia rose, marking US Treasury yields’ hike overnight.

2. How did the 2-year Treasury yield perform?

The 2-year Treasury yield stood at 2.002% post the Fed policy before soothing to 1.9235% in Tokyo trading.

3. How did the ten-year Treasury yield perform?

The ten-year Treasury yield hiked to 2.2460% and soothed to 2.1545% on Thursday, 17 March 2022.

Disclaimer: This blog is exclusively for educational purposes and does not provide any advice/tips on investment or recommend buying and selling any stock.