By Zhang Mengying
Investing.com – Asia-Pacific stocks were down on Tuesday morning after Wall Street entered the bear market while bond yields hit a two-decade high over fears of recession caused by more aggressive interest rate hikes from the U.S Federal Reserve.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.95% by 10:39 PM ET (2:39 AM GMT). As the yen fell to 24-year lows to the dollar, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Tuesday said the government will coordinate any appropriate steps with the Bank of Japan (BOJ).
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.26%.
In Australia, markets reopened after a holiday, the ASX 200 was down 0.35%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.94%.
China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.81% while the Shenzhen Component was down 1.08%.
The red-hot reading of U.S. inflation data still weighed on the market over fears that investors expect more interest rate hikes from the Fed, which might cause a recession. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields hit their highest point since 2011 on Monday.
The S&P 500 was down 3.88%, while Nasdaq 100 lost 4.60%. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) forecast a 75-basis point interest rate hike from the Fed’s June policy meeting on Wednesday.
“The U.S. will see rate rises faster and higher than Wall Street has been expecting,” Ord Minnett advisor James Rosenberg told Reuters.
“There will likely be the double impact of earnings forecasts being trimmed and further price to earnings derating.”
Raising interest rates is one of the ways for the Fed to tame rocket-high inflation, with the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) growing 8.6% year-on-year in May, a fresh 40-year high.
Global high inflation stoked by supply-chain and commodity-market disruptions, China’s COVID-19 curbs, and Russia’s war in Ukraine remain a concern. Moves from global central banks are on investor’s radars.
The Bank of England will hand down its policy decision on Thursday, while the Bank of Japan will hand it down on Friday.
On the data front, the U.S. producer price index (PPI) is due on Tuesday, and China's key economic activity data including industrial production is due the day following.
In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin fell to below $21,088.