Japan Stocks Take A Hit

Asia-Pacific Markets Stumble

Early Thursday, and after two days of sliding prices on Wall Street, the Asia-Pacific markets followed suit. Whereas Samsung Electronics emerged as a winner with a 50% hike in their operating profits for the first quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, in Japan, stocks took a stumble and dropped by almost 2% as the rest of the region’s markets fell. The Nikkei 225 marked a 1.77% drop, while the Topix slid 1.72%. Moreover, Mainland Chinese stocks registered a decline as the Shanghai composite dropped 0.99%, and the Shenzhen component lost 1.18%. Also notable, is that Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.31% and the Hang Seng tech index was 2.12% lower.

As losses piled up across the board, Vey-Sern Ling, a managing director at UBP, said Hong Kong-listed tech stocks are beginning to feel the impact of the geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe, rising Fed rates, and potential delisting of Chinese companies in the U.S.

Upcoming Economic Data

The latest news coming out of the Reserve Bank of India indicates that the central bank will carry on with its monetary policy meeting on Thursday. On the other side of the world, major U.S. stock indexes fell straight for a second day as investors heard Fed’s tightening monetary policy.

Indeed, Fed meeting minutes indicated that officials seek to shrink the balance sheet by $95 billion a month. Therefore, interest rates are also expected to increase at a faster pace.

Oil Prices Bounce Back by 1%

Amid all the uncertainty and volatile situation between Russia and Ukraine, crude oil rose by a little over 1% on Thursday morning in the Asian markets. While U.S. crude futures climbed 1.64% to trade at $97.81 per barrel, Brent crude was up 1.82% at $102.91 per barrel.

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