Tokyo, April 22 (BNA): Asian stocks mostly fell on Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that interest rate increases must be faster to fight inflation.
Major indices successively down in Asia. Japan’s CPI data showed an increase for the seventh consecutive month, although the results came within market expectations, according to the Associated Press.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.6% in afternoon trading, to 27106.56. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.6% to 7,473.30. South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.7 percent to 2707.96 points.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2% to 20,638.33, while the Shanghai Composite regained earlier losses, rising 0.4% to 3,091.79.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki made comments seen as a somewhat more forceful reaction against “sudden moves” in exchange rates after meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meetings.
The US dollar fell to 127.91 yen early Friday from 128.36 yen. The euro was quoted at $1.0850, slightly up from $1.0840.
Intervention may come, especially from the United States, said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
But the main reason for the dollar’s appreciation against the yen and other currencies – the widening gap between interest rates in Japan and some other Asian countries and higher US interest rates – is unlikely to recede.
And US benchmark crude fell $1.37 to $102.42 a barrel. It rose 1.6% on Thursday and is up about 40% for the year.
This has led to a rise in the cost of gasoline, which has deepened consumer investment. Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost $1.39 to $106.94 a barrel.
insult