SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets declined on Thursday as investors digest an overnight update from the U.S. Federal Reserve that indicated the central bank plans to raise interest rates as soon as March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2% while the tech-focused Hang Seng Tech index declined 2.91%. Hong Kong-listed shares of major Chinese tech names were down sharply: Alibaba shares fell 5.13%, JD was down 3.93%, Meituan fell 4.8%, Baidu was down 2.96% and Tencent lost 2.07%.
Elsewhere, mainland markets were more muted. The Shanghai Composite was up fractionally, but the Shenzhen Component slid 0.24%
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 1.67% while the Topix was down 1.23%.
Samsung Electronics reported a 53% jump in operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the year before, but it was down 12% from the previous three months.
The global chipmaker said its money-making memory business expects server demand to grow in 2022 as companies increase their investments into information technology, but supply chain issues are set to persist.
Samsung shares fell 1.55%
Australian shares retraced earlier gains as the ASX 200 fell 1.77%.
Thursday’s session in the Asia-Pacific followed overnight declines on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 129 points, after gaining more than 500 points at one point, following the Fed’s update.
Oil prices rose as much as 2% overnight, with international benchmark Brent crude futures hitting $90 on Wednesday for the first time since 2014.
The Taiwan market is closed for a holiday on Thursday.
Fed meeting, U.S. markets
The Federal Open Market Committee said a quarter-percentage point increase to its benchmark short-term borrowing rate is likely forthcoming — it would be the Fed’s first hike since December 2018.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated at a news conference that the U.S. central bank had “quite a bit of room to raise interest rates without threatening the labor market.” Inflation stateside is running at its hottest level in nearly 40 years.
While the Fed’s post-meeting statement did not provide a specific time for when the hike would come, indications suggest it could happen as soon as at its March meeting.
“The Fed also used this meeting to continue discussion on balance sheet normalisation and released a set of principles on its approach to shrinking the balance-sheet. Of most importance was a desire to make it predictable but sensitive to both the economy and markets,” the ANZ analysts said.
Major U.S. stock market averages reversed gains after Powell’s comments.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.4% on Wednesday at 34,168.09. It was up more than 500 points before the Fed update. The S&P 500 slid 0.2% to 4,349.93, while the Nasdaq Composite ended the session almost flat at 13,542.12, buoyed by Microsoft’s post-earnings gain.
Oil prices retreat
Oil prices fell Thursday during Asian trading hours: U.S. crude futures were down 0.29% while global benchmark Brent declined 0.4%.
In overnight trade, prices rose more than 2% amid growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, where experts say fears of Moscow’s invasion of the Eastern European country remain. Brent prices hit $90 at one point, but pulled back slightly.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s military said that North Korea fired what appears to be two ballistic missiles on Thursday, Reuters reported. The reclusive state has conducted six missile tests this month.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, last traded at 96.563, up from 95.948.
In other currencies, the Japanese yen traded at 114.59 per dollar, while the Australian dollar was at $0.7082.
— CNBC’s Saheli Roy Choudhury, Jeff Cox, Hannah Miao and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
