SINGAPORE- The euro huddled at a two-decade low on Thursday and oil nursed losses as investors fretted about a looming recession, while equities were caught between growth worries and relief that a slowdown might put the brakes on interest rate hikes.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up from a two-month low and rose 0.3 percentin early trade. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.7 percent. The Australian and New Zealand dollars scraped themselves from two-year lows.
S&P 500 futures were flat. Overnight the index rose 0.4 percent and Treasuries dropped as traders grappled with generally positive US economic data, with solid job openings, and hawkish minutes from the June Federal Reserve meeting.
“The coincidence of fairly hot job market data and far more resilient ISM services … further underpins the point that the Fed is unlikely to step-down the pace and intensity of tightening,” said Mizuho economist Vishnu Varathan.
Two-year Treasury yields shot up 14 basis points overnight and hovered at 2.9691 percent in the Asia session. That is above the 10-year yield of 2.9206 percent, showing the bond market is pointing to a slowdown in growth as rate hikes hit.
The US data showed job openings higher than expected and the services sector holding up.
The next big data point is on Friday when broader labor market numbers can provide a fuller picture of the state of the world’s biggest economy.
“The next litmus test for the direction in yields … will be the speeches by Bullard and Waller – who should shed more light into the thinking of the hawkish camp within the (Fed),” said NatWest Markets’ rates strategist Jan Nevruzi.
“Are they leaning into the recessionary fears or continuing to press on that the Fed has to go above neutral as quickly as possible and contain inflation no matter the cost to growth?” – Reuters
