TOKYO- Hong Kong stocks rose, but the yuan retraced some of Tuesday’s advance as China began annual sessions of its parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), with Beijing retaining a goal of roughly 5 percent in economic growth for 2025.
“Fears about weaker US and global economic activity are manifesting in the markets, with cyclicals driving the sell-off,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
“The uncertainty is enough to keep investors cautious, with American businesses and consumers presumably feeling the same.”
Australian stocks slumped 0.7 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.4 percent after flipping between small gains and losses.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied 2.1 percent, and an index of mainland blue chips rose 0.3 percent.
“Growth, inflation and fiscal spend targets were all pretty much as expected,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo.
“It doesn’t look like China wants to go overboard with spending right away, given the tariff threats, as they potentially want to save ammunition for external threats later in the year.”
Overnight, the US S&P 500 slid 1.2 percent, but futures rose 0.6 percent on Wednesday.
MSCI’s world equity index was largely flat, leaving it 1.9 percent lower so far this week.
US President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, along with doubled duties of 20 percent on Chinese goods, took effect on Tuesday.
