Singapore, March 23 (BNA): Asian stocks rose after the Federal Reserve hinted it might pause interest rate hikes following turmoil in the banking sector, though it also reiterated its commitment to fighting flat inflation.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.27%.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.50%, according to Reuters.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.67%.
Wall Street ended sharply lower as investors digested the Fed’s policy statement and comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference.
China’s CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite are both down 0.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 0.22%.
The Fed’s statement indicated that it was close to pausing rate hikes, but Powell said in his press conference that the central bank would do “enough” to tame inflation and raise the possibility of a rate hike if necessary.
Sentiment was also hurt by a comment from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who told lawmakers that she had not considered or discussed “universal insurance” of US bank deposits without congressional approval.
Fed funds futures are now priced at roughly equal chance that the Fed will raise rates by an additional 25 basis points in May or leave them unchanged, according to CME FedWatch.
In the currency market, the dollar index fell by 0.137%, with the euro rising 0.25% to $1.0882.
The yen rose 0.43% to 130.87 per dollar, while the pound sterling was last recorded at 1.2286 dollars, up 0.18%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 3.2 basis points to 3.468%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury fell 1.5 basis points to 3.682%.
The two-year US Treasury yield, which usually moves in accordance with interest rate expectations, fell 1.1 basis points to 3.970%.
US crude fell 1.11% to $70.11 a barrel.
Brent crude was at $75.94, down 0.98% on the day.
NAA