TOKYO- Asian shares and Wall Street futures fell on Wednesday as growing scepticism about Washington’s stimulus package to fight the coronavirus outbreak knocked the steam out of an earlier rally.
Markets had been recovering from a brutal global selloff on Monday that was triggered by the double shock of an oil price crash and the worsening outbreak.
Those gains looked short-lived in early Asian trade, with US stock futures falling 2.2 percent and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.29 percent.
Australian shares were down 2.02 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index slid 1.28 percent.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said he would take “major steps” to ease economic strains caused by the spread of the flu-like virus. Headlines focused on discussions of payroll tax cut, which helped lift market sentiment.
However, the lack of major announcements since then has left some investors unimpressed.
“We were promised something substantive from the Trump administration, and if it hasn’t come yet at this hour, then it looks like it is being delayed,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.
“That’s why markets have a negative tone. From a global investor’s perspective, there are still a lot of downside risks.”
On Wall Street, all three major indexes jumped nearly 5 percent on Tuesday, one day after US equities markets suffered their biggest one-day losses since the 2008 financial crisis.
The dollar gave up gains and fell against the yen, the Swiss franc and the euro as uncertainty set in.
Benchmark US 10-year Treasury yields were last at 0.7068 percent, more than double Monday’s record low yield of 0.3180 percent.
Further gains in yields could be limited because there are still strong expectations that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks will support fiscal stimulus with monetary easing.
Market participants largely expect the Fed to cut interest rates for the second time this month at the conclusion of next week’s regularly scheduled policy meeting after surprising investors last week with 50 basis point rate cut.
The euro is also in focus before a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, where policymakers will face pressure to ease policy after Italy put its entire country on lockdown in an attempt to slow new coronavirus infections. — Reuters
