Asian Stocks Poised to Track Wall Street Declines: Markets Wrap
Asian stocks are poised to mirror a weak US session, where equities fell alongside bonds amid a rush of corporate-debt sales and worries over developed-world budgets.
Equity futures pointed lower in Sydney and Tokyo, with little change in Hong Kong, after the pared earlier losses to close 0.7% down. US contracts edged higher in early Asia trading, following after-hours gains in as a federal judge ruled Google won’t be forced to sell its Chrome browser.
US 30-year yields neared 5% on Tuesday, weighing on whose valuations had stretched during a surge from April lows. The rose and gold climbed to a record.
Along with a , there’s been renewed concern about longer-dated global debt after years of issuance exacerbated budget deficits. In the UK, the yield on long-dated bonds hit the highest since 1998 and the pound sank as pressure mounted on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to manage the budget.
In Asia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be in focus after the US the company’s authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base. TSMC’s US-listed American depositary receipts slipped as much as 2.3% Tuesday.
In commodities, gold rose the most in more than a month to close at a record, while silver ended at its highest in almost 14 years, as inflation expectations increase and sentiment sours. Oil jumped on signs of enduring short-term tightness and increased skepticism that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will be imminently reached.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump said his administration would ask the Supreme Court for an in hopes of overturning a federal court decision that many of his tariffs were illegally imposed. “The stock market’s down because the stock market needs the tariffs. They want the tariffs,” the president said.
“Less tariff income means more US debt sales to cover spending deficit,” said Scott Wren at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
Traders are facing a host of concerns ranging from key economic data to US tariffs, Federal Reserve independence, monetary policy as well as global fiscal prospects. That comes as the stock market is seemingly at a after the posted its smallest monthly gain since July 2024 just ahead of what’s historically known as the .
“Wake me up when September ends!” said Thomas Tzitzouris at Strategas. “We’ve been suspicious that September was going to be a volatile month.”
Traders will be looking to key US labor market data this week for clues on economic growth and the Fed’s policy outlook. Employers showed little enthusiasm to take on workers during August, and the unemployment rate probably ticked up to an almost four-year high, adding to evidence of a
The importance of this week’s economic data will ultimately drive where yields are by Friday’s close – even if there is a lot that could shift investors’ perception of the state of the labor market in the interim,” said Ian Lyngen and Vail Hartman at BMO Capital Markets.
On the economic front, shrank in August for a sixth straight month, driven by a pullback in production that shows manufacturing remains bogged down by higher import duties.
“The ISM manufacturing report indicated that companies are largely managing headcount rather than actively hiring,” said Scott Helfstein at Global X. “This may be a clue ahead of Friday’s jobs numbers. New jobs are likely slowing, but meaningful revisions to data over the prior months could mean that the report, good or bad, may not influence investors much.”
Helfstein says investors should pay close attention to wage growth in Friday’s job report.
“Wages have been outpacing inflation and that is usually a good sign for consumption,” he said. “While defaults are going up slightly, most of the numbers on consumer behavior have remained robust.”.
US PREVIEW: July JOLTS to Show More Labor-Market Cooling
Swap markets are currently pricing in more than 20 basis points of Fed easing in September, with a bit more than two quarter-point reductions priced by the end of 2025.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
Currencies
Cryptocurrencies
Bonds
Commodities
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
