Asian stock markets are showing mixed results on Thursday, driven largely by lingering ambiguity among traders about the future direction of interest rates. This uncertainty arises from a combination of recent economic data and hawkish remarks from several US Federal Reserve officials. On Wednesday as well, Asian Markets exhibited a mixed closing.
Fed President of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, hinted that the current interest rates might need to sustain for an extended period. He also did not rule out another potential rate increase. However, most still anticipate the Fed to trim rates in the third quarter, with the FedWatch Tool of the CME Group indicating an 83.5% chance that rates will fall by September.
Contrary to its recent positive streak, the Australian market performed significantly lower on Thursday. This decrease stems from the losses in the financial and technology sectors and are somewhat counteracted by gains in the energy sector driven by elevated crude oil prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index reduced by 71.60 points or 0.92% to 7,732.90, with the broader All Ordinaries Index falling by 70.90 points or 0.88% to 8,005.80.
In other markets, Baby Bunting shares saw a massive plunge of 20% after a downgrade in profit guidance due to rising living costs affecting consumers.
In the building industry, the number of permits issued in Australia rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.9% in March, standing at 12,947, which aligns with the expectations following a 0.9% decline in February. The total approvals, however, fell 2.2% from a year ago.
As for currency, the Australian dollar is being traded at $0.658 on Thursday.
Recovering from losses of the previous session, the Japanese market performed notably better on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 38,392.10, up by 189.73 points or 0.50%.
SoftBank Group, a market heavyweight, reduced by almost 2%, and Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, edged down by 0.5%. Meanwhile, in the tech space, Advantest remained flat, but Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings lost over 1% each.
Major gainers included Omron with almost a 12% hike, Yamaha with over 10%, and Orix with over 8%.
On the downside, Yamato Holdings plummeted nearly 11%, Taiyo Yuden plunged over 7%, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries slipped nearly 6%, and Mitsubishi Motors dropped over 5%.In the foreign exchange marketplace, the American dollar is being traded at the upper end of the 157 yen-range this Thursday.
On the Asian front, the indices for China, Hong Kong and Malaysia have dropped by an approximation of 0.1 to 0.5 percent individually. In the same vein, the indices for New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore have also depreciated by roughly between 0.3 and 0.5 percent each. Conversely, Taiwan's economic performance remains relatively stagnant, while the Indonesian market is shut due to the observance of Ascension Day.
Turning to Wall Street, there was a notable stagnancy in stock performance during Wednesday's trading activity, extending the uninspired performance from Tuesday's market session. Despite the irregular trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to climb for the sixth consecutive day, achieving its highest closing level in more than a month.
At the close of the day, the outcomes for the major indices were diverse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced an uplift of 172.13 points, or 0.4 percent, to settle at 39,056.39. Conversely, the S&P 500 was relatively unchanged, dropping by a marginal 0.03 points or less than one-tenth of a percent to settle at 5,187.67. Similarly, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 29.8 points or 0.2 percent to end at 16,302.76.
In Europe, all significant markets witnessed an uptick. France's CAC 40 Index, the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 Index, and Germany's DAX Index increased by 0.7 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.4 percent respectively.
Regarding the energy market, crude oil prices were on the rise on Wednesday, following a report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicating a surge in crude inventories last week. Consequently, West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for June recorded a twenty-four-hour price increase of $0.61 or 0.78 percent to land at $78.99 per barrel.